Natasha Trethewey, former United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner, is the 2018 Leo Sam Keynote Speaker for the 10^th Annual Spring Literary Forum Series at Florida A&M University.

“‘We Built This’: Storytellers and Culture Bearers” is our 2018 theme, and it was inspired by the “Juneteenth” episode of ABC’s Black-ish. Our guest speakers’ thought-provoking presentations on culture, history, literature, and traditions of the past will reveal traces of those legacies in the present as we continue “to document the humanity and experiences of Afro-Southern communities” and to celebrate their “contributions to an American identity.”

Our 2018 guest speakers include Yolanda Franklin, PhD (FAMU); Billy Close, PhD (FSU); Patrick Mason, PhD (FSU); Mayor Booker Gainor (Cairo, Georgia); and Sam X, artist and master gardener (Sylvester, Georgia).  A special panel dedicated to an illuminating discussion on the significance of Black-ish’s “Juneteenth” episode will feature the following scholars: Kendra Mitchell, PhD; Darius Young, PhD; and Cocoa Williams.