Lit Youngstown’s 8th annual Fall Literary Festival will occur Oct. 17-19. As part of the conference, three free evening events will take place around Youngstown. These activities are open to the public.
“Gathering In” occurs 7 p.m. Thursday at the McDonough Museum of Art and features music by the Tongue-in-Groove Band, as well as poets Michael Loderstadt, Diana Lueptow and Raja Belle Freeman. The band features Al Moses on guitar, Nick Marino on bass, Michelle Clark on Percussion, Nancy Redd-McNiece on flute and vocals and Ray McNiece on rhythm guitar and vocals. After the opening, the band will accompany open mic readers.
A keynote reading by Hanif Abdurraquib will take place 7 p.m. Friday at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Abdurraquib is a poet, essayist and cultural critic from Columbus. His poetry has been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American and other journals. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker and The New York Times. Youngstown Rayen Early College High School senior Lyric Saulsberry, winner of the 2024 CityVerse, will open with her winning poetry.
A reading featuring authors Ama Codjoe and Rachel Swearingen will be held 7 p.m. Saturday at the Tyler History Center. Codjoe is the author of “Bluest Nude” (Milkweed Editions, 2022), winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry. Swearingen is the author of the story collection “How to Walk on Water and Other Stories,” which received the New American Press Fiction Prize, and was named the 2021 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year.
Lit Youngstown is a literary arts nonprofit with programs for writers, readers, and those who love a good story. More information is available at www.LitYoungstown.org….
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