Chicago's Black writers are preparing for what promises to be an exciting four-day conference that's scheduled to begin Thursday, Sept. 19 at UIC...ending Sept. 22 with an interfaith service and closing discussion on the festival's future.
The festival for writers, thinkers, teachers, publishers and other media professionals is being touted as an opportunity for GLBT people of African descent to network and share ideas. But according to Lisa Moore, lead organizer and a writer from Washington, D.C., the real objective is to expand the conference so that it becomes "an LGBT conference for people of color."
"We just formed the organization to have the conference and we hope to meet every two years in different cities," Moore said. "In the off-years, hopefully there will be an interest for regional meetings. The key is to provide support for writers of color who often feel very isolated."
Moore says she, along with other conference organizers, Samiya Bashir, Sharon Bridgforth, [ Chicago's ] C.C. Carter, Dorothy Randall Gray, Reginald Harris and G. Winston James came up with the idea after growing tired of complaining about conferences that left them unsatisfied.
"A lot of us would always attend the Outwrite Conference held in Boston," she said. "Sometimes there would be over 1,000 people...but only a handful of people of color. We would sit out in the hotel lobby on the last day, sometimes skipping workshops, just to talk about our common concerns. We longed to connect with other writers of color but the planners didn't make that an easy task. That's when we decided, 'we've got enough people coming each year to start something of our own.'"
Now, to facilitate the important objective of networking, the Fire & Ink schedule allows 30 minutes between each conference workshop to allow people to talk to one another. Conversation rooms will also be available at the end of the day.
Besides Carter, other Chicago participants /readers include: Avery Young, Sanford Gaylord, Byron Stewart, Dwight McBride, Duriel E. Harris and Lynnell Long.
Among special guests are Thomas Glave, Abigail Sewell, Glen james, and there will be a salute to the late June Jordan.
For info call Affinity ( 773 ) 324-0377; or FAX: 301-559-5239/PHONE: 202-452-7440; FireandInk@aol.com
The conference is at the University of Illinois at Chicago, 750 S. Halsted.