Calling on Ancestors: Writing the Past into the Present
How we keep our family stories and honor our ancestors is paramount in the works of these three writers—a biographer, a novelist, and a poet—who tell the stories of their families across generations in the South. TYREE DAYE’s poems in a little bump in the earth, are set in Youngsville, North Carolina, where Daye’s family has lived for the last 200 years and where the land, family artifacts, and memories combine to explore the love of people and places of his history. ZELDA LOCKHART’s Trinity is the story of a daughter-spirit sent by her ancestors to unearth the atrocities endured by her family line and to bring love back into a lineage broken by violence. In his carefully researched biography, DAVID NICHOLSON tells the story of his great-grandparents, The Garrets of Columbia: A Black South Carolina Family from Slavery to the Dawn of Integration, a family history that also brings American history to life.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TYREE DAYE was raised in Youngsville, North Carolina. He is the author of the poetry collections a little bump in the earth, Cardinal, and River Hymns—winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. He currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. LEARN MORE
DAVID NICHOLSON is a former editor and book reviewer for the Washington Post Book World and author of Flying Home: Seven Stories of the Secret City. He attended Haverford College before graduating from the University of the District of Columbia. Nicholson has worked as a reporter in San Francisco; Milwaukee; and Dayton, Ohio. He lives in Vienna, Virginia, with his wife and son. LEARN MORE
DR. ZELDA LOCKHART is Director at Her Story Garden Studios: Inspiring Black Women & Girls to Self-Define, Heal, and Liberate Through Our Stories & Nature. Lockhart holds a PhD in Expressive Art Therapies. She is the author of two memoirs and four novels. Her latest books include Trinity (a novel) and The Soul of the Full-Length Manuscript: Turning Life's Wounds into the Gift of Literary Fiction, Memoir, or Poetry. She facilitates workshops and offers lectures on the power of our stories and the power of nature to connect and heal humanity. LEARN MORE
ABOUT THE HOST
DEMETRIUS "D" NOBLE is an activist, teacher, and radical cultural worker. He currently serves as an adjunct professor in the African American & Diaspora Studies department at UNC Greensboro. His research interests include Black liberation struggle, Black class antagonisms, African American literature, popular culture and hip hop studies. His work has been published in The African American Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, The Journal of Black Masculinity, Socialism & Democracy, Works and Days, Cultural Logic, Red Wedge and other leftist digital and print publications.