
EVENTS

CUNY Teaching and Learning Conference
The CUNY Innovative Teaching Academy (CITA) is proud to announce its second CUNY-wide Teaching and Learning Conference, designed to support, elevate, and recognize faculty teaching excellence. Join us on April 3, 2025 (virtually) and April 4, 2025, (in person at the CUNY Graduate Center) as we bring together faculty, staff, and students from all campuses to explore innovative pedagogical practices, share insights, and inspire the future of education.
Free and Open to CUNY
Keynote by Christina Katopodis, Ph.D., Co-Author of The New College Classroom
Panel of Teaching Experts from Across CUNY

When They See Us: Reckoning With History
Whether it’s family history, historical references to national monuments, or authentic stories of African American survival in Baltimore's forgotten neighborhoods, three esteemed authors seek to unravel myths, reveal injustices, and in their own way, examine what it means to be truly seen in light of complicated history. How the past is present - still- in us.” Listening to these stories will likely encourage one’s own deep exploration into family, or place, color and status, and long-held myths in families and communities. A prizewinning scholar of Black history, including Vanguard, Martha S. Jones, the author of the trouble of color: an American family memoir delves into her family’s past for answers, and delivers a “deeply felt meditation on the most fundamental matters of identity, belonging, and family.” Irvin Weathersby is a Brooklyn-based writer, a professor from New Orleans, and the author of In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynold’s says, “helps us examine some of the stone grotesquerie erected and living among us—the remainders of before, the reminders of blood. And in doing so with such care, he’s granted us this work, a new monument to gaze at.” Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is a professor at Loyola University Maryland and the founding executive director of the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, & Social Justice. She is also the host of the award-winning radio show Today with Dr. Kaye on WEAA, 88.9 FM, and the author of five books, including the recently released my mother’s tomorrow: dispatches from Baltimore’s Black Butterfly. AFRO Special Projects Editor, Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware says her work “brings to the community the ever-sounding alarm, “Injustice over here,” and she does it with historical acumen and spiritual determination.”

The Poly Opportunity, The New York Retreat
A weekend in Hudson Valley full of conversation and care
In a former Capuchin monastery overlooking the Hudson River, we’ll take time to pause, reflect, and explore the tenets of healing-centered leadership. We’ll combine somatic, emotional, spiritual, and artificial intelligence to draft ThePolyOpportunity map from within ourselves.
Lodging and all meals are included.

Sunday Salon + Writ Large Projects, AWP Off-Site Reading
Readings by Tanzila Ahmed, J.L. Akagi, Sidik Fofana, Trista Hurley-Waxali, and Irvin Weathersby Jr.

Lampblack Reading Series
Join us for the second season of the Lampblack Reading Series. Our second event will take place at MoCADA located at 10 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Featuring Stephanie Wambugu, Irvin Weathersby, and Tiana Clark!
This event is free and open to the public.
Doors open at 4PM. Readings will begin at 4:30PM.

Authors in Conversation: Irvin Weathersby Jr. with Maisy Card
In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space
A stirring journey into the soul of a fractured America that confronts the enduring specter of white supremacy in our art, monuments, and public spaces, from a captivating new literary voice

Sunday Salon Reading Series
Sunday Salon is a larger than life reading series in NYC featuring a refreshing blend of local and international literary voices.

Saturday Night Special with Hollie Hardy
Join us online for an evening of literary performance and open mic reading
Featuring: Cindy Huyser + Irvin Weathersby Jr.
Theme: Mad Love
Hosted By: Hollie Hardy

Bookum Nook Discussion: In Open Contempt with Special Guest, Irvin Weathersby
We are excited to announce we will have a special Bookum Nook conversation with Irvin Weathersby on his phenomenal new book “In Open Contempt”! Our will be the amazing Wale Okerayi. The conversation will be exclusive on Bookum [Nooks].
Download app and please follow instructions on post to join and listen live on the 21st!

LIFTed Literary Festival
Virtual Panel:
The Weight of History: Writing Through the Lens of Resilience w/ Cebo Campbell, Brendan Solcumb, Irvin Weathersby and Sarah Labrie


The New School Book Launch
Join us for a reading with author, Irvin Weathersby Jr. (Nonfiction '09) as he sits down with Randy Winston (Fiction '16) to discuss his memoir In Open Contempt: Confronting White Supremacy in Art and Public Space.

Master Lecture at The Writer’s Foundry
Each semester, distinguished authors visit the Writer’s Foundry to deliver master lectures on notable works of writing. Each visiting lecturer is asked to speak, one writer to another, on literary concerns of the featured book.

Must Love Memoir Reading Series
Must Love Memoir is a NYC-based reading series dedicated to creative nonfiction writers. It's a monthly event, founded and hosted by Krystal Marie Orwig and co-hosted by Hope Elizabeth Kidd. Each month, a line-up of 6 writers step up to the mic to tell their personal stories. Free and open to the public!

Ditmas Lit Reading
Hosted by Sarah Bridgins and Lena Valencia, Ditmas Lit is a monthly reading series in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, dedicated to showcasing a diverse range of emerging and established writers in all genres. On the fourth Wednesday of every month, we gather at The Urbane Arts Club at 8PM to listen as poets, essayists, fiction writers, and storytellers share their work.

“A Burning House”: MLK and the American Experiment
The 19th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration from WNYC and the Apollo Theater will explore Dr. King’s enduring legacy through the lens of belonging, reflecting on his vision for a just and inclusive society. Join us for this inspiring tribute as we honor Dr. King’s dream and engage in a timely dialogue on the ongoing project of forging an equitable society.
Full video of celebration:
https://www.youtube.com/live/jcok1w92CeQ?si=NWIfDDDfGdy8YUqy

Brooklyn Reads: IN OPEN CONTEMPT
How do we reckon with ongoing anti-Black racism in the United States, as represented by monuments, street signs, and schools named after slaveowners, segregationists, and white supremacists? In this debut book, cultural commentator Irvin Weathersby Jr. engages curators, city planners, and artists—including Brooklyn Museum collection artists Titus Kaphar and Kara Walker—whose work considers the specter of white supremacy in public spaces. The author will be conversation with Robert Jones Jr.

Franklin Park Reading Series
Join us for readings featuring Irvin Weathersby Jr., Joseph O'Neill, Kevin Maloney, Kristen Felicetti, and Dolan Morgan. Enjoy drink specials and mingling with fellow lit enthusiasts, plus a free-to-enter book raffle! Free Admission!

Kindred Stories: Author Talk
Celebrate the publication date of Irvin Weathersby Jr's new book "In Open Contempt" with an insightful author talk and signing at Kindred Stories in Houston. The author with be in conversation with Wale Okerayi and Anthony Suber.

Baldwin & Co: Author Talk and Book Signing
Celebrate the publication date of Irvin Weathersby Jr's new book "In Open Contempt" with an insightful author talk and signing at Baldwin & Co bookstore in New Orleans. The author will be in conversation with Brandan “BMIKE” Odums.