41st annual Lit Fest brings acclaimed authors, journalists,
poets and cultural leaders to Chicago
Some of the nation’s leading Black authors, journalists, poets, historians and cultural figures will converge on downtown Chicago September 12-13 for the 41st annual Printers Row Lit Fest, bringing a wide-ranging exploration of Black history, identity, politics, culture and the American experience.
The two-day festival, billed as the largest free literary event in the Midwest, will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days and feature more than 200 authors and presenters, including eight Pulitzer Prize winners, along with booksellers and publishers.
This year’s extensive roster of Black participants includes PBS NewsHour co-anchor Geoff Bennett, bestselling novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Chicago journalist and author Natalie Y. Moore, former Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner, Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young and award-winning poet Taylor Byas.
The writers and presenters will address subjects ranging from Chicago neighborhoods, segregation and Black history to democracy, policing, family, music, sports and popular culture.
“Taken together, this is far more than a collection of author appearances,” said Amy Danzer, Printers Row Lit Fest program director. “It is a cross-section of Black Chicago and Black America—writers documenting history, poets redefining language, journalists challenging conventional narratives, scholars recovering stories that have been overlooked, artists creating new forms of expression, and cultural leaders connecting those traditions to the next generation.”
Bennett, co-anchor of PBS NewsHour and author of Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to 90’s Sitcoms, is scheduled to appear Sunday, September 13, at noon on the Digital Realty Stage at West Polk Street and Plymouth Court. His book examines the history and influence of Black comedy and its relationship to American culture.
Perkins-Valdez, a New York Times bestselling author and recipient of an NAACP Image Award and Black Caucus of the American Library Association Fiction Award, will discuss her novel Happy Land with Moore.
The novel draws on the little-known history of a self-governing Black community established by formerly enslaved people in the mountains of North Carolina. Perkins-Valdez also wrote Take My Hand, a novel inspired by the experiences of Black women subjected to involuntary medical experimentation.
Moore brings a distinctly Chicago perspective to the festival. Her book, The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, examines segregation in Chicago and its continuing consequences.
Turner, an award-winning journalist and former Chicago Tribune columnist, will discuss Three Girls from Bronzeville, her memoir examining race, opportunity, friendship and sisterhood through the lives of three Black girls growing up on Chicago’s South Side. The book was named a notable book by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Chicago’s poetry community also will have a significant presence.
Byas, a Chicago native, is the author of I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, a collection inspired by The Wiz that follows a Black woman’s journey from Chicago’s South Side into adulthood and back home. The collection won the Maya Angelou Book Award and Chicago Review of Books Award in Poetry.
Chicago’s first Poet Laureate, avery r. young, will bring his combination of poetry, performance and visual expression to the festival. His collection neck|bone: visual verses explores Black life, masculinity, memory and place.
Poet, performer and cultural organizer Marvin Tate, a former Chicago poetry slam champion, also is scheduled to participate. Tate’s work blends poetry, music, humor and improvisation. Multidisciplinary poet, singer and composer Ugochi Nwaogwugwu will bring a Pan-African perspective shaped in part by her Igbo heritage.
The festival also will feature historians and scholars whose work examines Black political and social history.
LaShawn Harris, a historian of Black women’s history and professor at Michigan State University, will discuss Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City. The book recounts the 1984 police killing of Bumpurs, a 66-year-old Black grandmother, and the activism that followed.
Political strategist and author Atima Omara will discuss The Instigators: How Black Women Are Essential to Democracy, and What We Can Learn from Them, which examines the role Black women have played in American political organizing and democracy.
Other participants include Tisa Bryant, whose work explores Black representation in film, literature and visual art; Alfred L. Martin Jr., a University of Miami professor whose scholarship focuses on Black representation, sexuality and popular culture; and poet and scholar dezireé a. brown, whose work examines identity, transformation and liberation.
Sports and culture will intersect through Chicago-born journalist and author Robert “Scoop” Jackson, whose books include The Game Is Not a Game: The Power, Protest, and Politics of American Sports. Jackson, a former senior writer and editor at ESPN, SLAM and XXL, writes for the Chicago Sun-Times.
The roster also includes Jamia Wilson, author of Young, Gifted, and Black, Together We Rise and Step Into Your Power; Emmy Award-winning producer and author Nikesha Elise Williams; Northwestern University professor and PBS host Danielle Bainbridge; and Heather Ireland Robinson, executive director of the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
Several writers will bring deeply personal stories to the festival.
Nikki Patin, a multidisciplinary artist, educator and advocate, is the author of the 2024 memoir Working on Me, which chronicles her experiences with trauma, healing and self-discovery.
Reshona Landfair, formerly a member of the RCA/BMG recording group 4 The Cause, makes her literary debut with Who’s Watching Shorty?: Reclaiming Myself from the Shame of R. Kelly’s Abuse. The memoir recounts her experience as a teenager in R. Kelly’s orbit and her journey toward reclaiming her identity and voice.
Chicago writer and educator James Stewart III will discuss his debut novel, Defiant Acts, which follows a Black working-class man and his interracial family as they confront race, family relationships and economic pressures in a predominantly white Chicago suburb.
The celebration of Black creativity will extend beyond books. Chicago dancer and choreographer Homer Hans Bryant, founder of the Chicago Multicultural Dance Center and creator of Hiplet, which combines classical ballet with hip-hop and other dance forms, also will participate in the festival.
Other Black writers and cultural voices scheduled to appear include Ed Taylor, Ashley Jordan, Morgan Campbell and Leslé Honoré.
The 41st annual Printers Row Lit Fest will be held September 12-13 in Chicago’s historic Printers Row neighborhood. Admission is free.