Columbia, SC– Richland Library hosts: A Conversation with Renée Watson Friday, April 21, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., at Richland Library Main (1431 Assembly Street). Moderated by Augusta Baker Endowed Chair, Dr. Nicole Cooke, Watson will discuss her books, her collaborations, inspirations and more during the 2023 Augusta Baker Lecture. Registration is strongly encouraged and can be accessed at RichlandLibrary.com.
Watson, a New York Times Bestselling Author, has penned titles such as Love is a Revolution, This Side of Home, Harlem’s Little Black Bird, and Piecing Me Together. Her works have earned a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. She has been awarded and internationally recognized for her children’s picture books and novels for teens alike.
Watson channels her lived experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest to create immersive literature filled with representation and reality. Her poetry and fiction center around the experiences of Black girls and explore themes of home, identity, body image, and the intersections of race, class, and gender. Further increasing her inclusion efforts, Watson founded the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit committed to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts, and served as Executive Director from 2016-2019.
Meet the Moderator
Dr. Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and a Professor at the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching interests include human information behavior, critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. She was the 2019 Association of Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) Excellence in Teaching Award recipient and the 2021 MLK Social Justice Award presented by the University of South Carolina. She has edited and authored several books, including Information Services to Diverse Populations and Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-truth Era.
A book signing and sale will immediately follow the moderated conversation.
This event is in partnership with Richland Library, the University of South Carolina College of Information and Communication and the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair.
For questions, please contact Anika Thomas at 803-530-4621 or athomas@richlandlibrary.com.
