We’re thrilled to share that Brittle Paper has curated a series of literary panels for this year’s Schomburg Center Literary Festival, taking place on Saturday, June 14 in Harlem. This is one of the most important book events in the US literary world, hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. This year’s festival is part of the center’s centennial celebrations to mark100 years of championing Black history and intellectual life from its home in the heart of Harlem.

From 11am to 7pm on June 14, the festival will take over both the landmark Schomburg building and all of 135th Street with author talks, workshops, cosplay, live music, a tribute to Nikki Giovanni, and a keynote by activist Raquel Willis. DJ D-Nice and Slick Rick will close the day with a block party on the newly added Octavia E. Butler Stage.

As part of the programming, Brittle Paper is curating three conversations that bring together some of our favorite authors in African and Diaspora writing.

This Could Be Love
MARB Reading Room | 1:00 PM
This panel explores queer love, longing, and the politics of intimacy in contemporary fiction.

  • Chukwuebuka Ibeh, Blessings

  • Ani Kayode Somtochukwu, And Then He Sang a Lullaby
    Moderator: B.A. Parker (Code Switch)

Future Histories: New Ways of Telling Difficult Histories of Violence
MARB Reading Room | 4:00 PM
This session features authors reimagining Africa’s past—its traumas, cosmologies, and silences—through speculative, historical, and philosophical lenses.

  • Chigozie Obioma, The Road to the Country (a Biafra novel structured by Yoruba divination)

  • Ivana Akotowaa Ofori, The Year of Return (a haunting supernatural reckoning with transatlantic slavery set in Accra)

Storytelling and Suspense in Contemporary Fiction
Langston Hughes Auditorium | 4:00 PM
This is a genre fiction dream team: three women writing thrillers with complex female protagonists.

  • Iris Mwanza, The Lions’ Den (a legal thriller set in Uganda centered on a queer dancer’s disappearance)

  • Yasmin Angoe, No One Who Sees Me (a psychological thriller set in South Carolina)

  • Rama Sana Mansa, The Portrait of Lysbeth (a mystery set in 1676 New York, featuring a freed African woman solving a string of murders)
    Moderator: Brittany Luse (It’s Been a Minute)

See full schedule here.

We’re proud of this collaboration with the Schomburg Center. Though this is our most extensive curatorial role to date, it builds on a relationship that began with the center in 2022, when we co-hosted a LIVE from NYPL rooftop reading with Buki Papillon and Namina Forna, an evening of feminist African fantasy under the New York City skyline.

It’s a real joy to be able to bring these voices together in such a storied space. If you’re in NYC, come through. Yest, it is free, but register here first. If you’re not able to attend in person, follow @schomburglive and @schomburgcenter for ways to enjoy the festival online.