If you are in or around Toronto in three weeks, I invite you to attend two events happening in the same week with details for each below. We hope to see you there and more soon . . .

#hbd youtu.be/hQuRNOOh45Yl

There’s still time to register for these events tomorrow with a small update: The Fordham event will be over Zoom due to the weather. Links to register below—we hope to see you then! Holloway lecture: qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... Fordham lecture: luma.com/hvcobbiu

On February 24, 2026 from 6:45 pm to 8:00 pm, Dr. I. Augustus Durham (@imeanswhatisays.bsky.social) will visit @fordham.edu to discuss his book Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius (Duke University Press) in Freeman Hall, Tiered Lecture Hall 103. Join us! RSVP here: luma.com/hvcobbiu

I am excited to be in conversation next week with @sashapanaram.bsky.social and Fordham English—if you are free on Tuesday at 645p, come on out to hear me discuss #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social). Check the link below to register: luma.com/hvcobbiu We hope to see you there!

I am excited to share an upcoming guest lecture for my (under)graduate seminar, Black Messiah: Tuesday February 24, 2026 at 1p EST, we will host a conversation with Dr. Karla FC Holloway on Octavia E. Butler’s short story, “Bloodchild.” Check the link 👇🏾 to register as this event will be on Zoom:

With all this talk about Toni Morrison, I thought I would add to the conversation but not like you would hope . . . 👀 Last semester for my Minor Morrison seminar, I tasked my students with making book covers for the final project. And so, I give you Recitatif, A Mercy, and God Help the Child.*

Before Rosa Parks . . . Her story is an anecdote I often share during book events for #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social) as a way to chart the long history of the phrase. #RIP

I am excited to share my most recent @bombmag.bsky.social feature when I interviewed Terence Nance on his album, V O R T E X, and how it is a part of an ever-evolving continuum of his aesthetic work, an extension of his (random) acts of flyness—check the link below! bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

Black Messiah was approved as a graduate course in November 2024; I taught it once before as an undergrad course and was excited to reframe it for a new environment. Then I thought, I will do something funky and teach the same class as an undergrad and grad course to see what through lines await.

Roberta Flack taught Richard Smallwood when she was a public school teacher in DC. They both came through Howard’s Music Department, admittedly at different times. I just invoked his name this summer at the Library of Congress, and he surfaces in Be Real Black for Me (@dukepress.bsky.social).

Gratitude to Baldwin & Co. bookstore for sharing the second part of our collaboration where Corey J. Miles and I converse about #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social) while in New Orleans. As well, thanks to those who attended this event, both friends and enemies. What?! 👀 youtu.be/3kRPwrcbG0Q

Although this conversation with Corey Miles happened earlier this year, the timeliness of its posting last week felt like it could not arrive sooner, even with me forgetting that I referenced the recently departed. Issa Vibe for Stay Black and Die. youtu.be/-1TsydT4AWo

Today!

Monday!

I am pleased to share a few upcoming events: Sunday, November 2, 2025, I will moderate an author panel at Toronto International Festival of Authors with authors Souvankham Thammavongsa & Ian Williams. Then on November 3, 2025, my American Literature survey, Kind of Blue, will host Sampada Aranke.

Be bless . . . and buy Stay Black and Die: On Melancholy and Genius. www.dukeupress.edu/stay-black-a...

My fourth-year seminar, Minor Morrison, will host @kinohi.bsky.social this Monday for his lecture: What Comes Before the Haunting?: Toni Morrison’s Late Style in A Mercy. Check the Qualtrics link👇🏾 to register. (And apologies for the late arrival of this announcement due to the holiday.)

Simply unbelievable. And to think about what was coming in his honor in the near future . . . 🥺😔 There are no words but this was my offering, once. For @markanthonyneal.bsky.social: www.newblackmaninexile.net/2014/12/the-...

If you are in or around Toronto next Wednesday, October 15, 2025, from 12-2p, you are invited to attend an important upcoming event at the Centre for the Study of the United States.

This Monday, October 6, 2025 at 3p, I am pleased to host Shaun Myers, Assistant Professor of English at University of Pittsburgh, for her lecture “Re-reading ‘Recitatif’ Through the Archive.” This lecture coincides with the seminar Minor Morrison in the Department of English, University of Toronto.

#latepost Gratitude for presenting on Marvin Gaye, from #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social), at the Library of Congress for Black Music Month. Being invited to a space that hosted Toni Morrison and others gave me wings! Check👇🏾 for links to my lecture and Library blog interview + more photos:

Tonight with DJ B-Sharp! And there may still be spots to RSVP so check the link: www.eventbrite.com/e/a2b-vinyl-... See you then!

Tonight with @jenishawo.bsky.social! And still time to RSVP! www.eventbrite.com/e/stay-black... @dukepress.bsky.social

Wednesday night talk at Eaton by Professor I Augustus Durham on his book “Stay Black and die: On Melancholy and Genius “ that includes a fascinating chapter on Marvin Gaye.

Come through, y’all!

For Black August, I am elated to share a two-day collaboration—h/t Aryn Bussey and Nina Ligon—with The Eaton DC: Wednesday, August 20 @ 7p, I and @jenishawo.bsky.social, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, will converse about #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social). www.eventbrite.com/e/stay-black...

In June, I was grateful to collaborate with the Center for Spiritual Imagination to inaugurate its Audio Divina series with “How Much a Dollar Cost” from To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. www.spiritualimagination.org

@dem8z.bsky.social speaking to what Roberta Flack called “tryin’ times” as she quotes Frederick Douglass and invokes 1987, an important year for me.

Today at Library of Congress. Thanks to @dcsuburbanite.bsky.social for this profile in @wcp.bsky.social, especially as an event among a host of others in DC during/for WorldPride and Black Music Month. washingtoncitypaper.com/article/7653... Also, I have two tickets available for anyone who would

Next week . . .

Tonight! Check below for more information—hope to see you then 👍🏾

This Wednesday! Register here: www.spiritualimagination.org/events/medit...

🎶 Join us on May 28 @ 7p for “Meditation is a Must” Our inaugural session explores Kendrick Lamar’s “How Much a Dollar Cost” through Audio/Musica Divina. I. Augustus Durham (@dukepress.bsky.social) will offer insights to deepen our reflection. Register👇🏾: spiritualimagination.org/events/meditat…

One month away! Although tickets are sold out, if you are in/around DC on June 5 and think you can attend, let me know since I got it like that. 🙃 @dukepress.bsky.social

Excited for tomorrow! Check the link in the OP for program details and registration—see you then!

If you can, see it as Coogler has prescribed. Also: Let the right one in . . .

Next week! Register at the QR code or here if there’s still availability: tisch.nyu.edu/cinema-studi... In an effort to keep things fresh as spring is here, or approaches 🤔, I will be presenting some new work.

If you are in or around NY on April 25, come through to this daylong symposium at NYU where I will be presenting work—maybe something new!—alongside a panel of fellow thinkers. I will share further details as they emerge. 👍🏾

And for my next trick— Be Real Black for Me: About the Matter of Roberta Flack. Under contract with @dukepress.bsky.social How it is going vs how it continued vs how it started You have to understand it feels like I have been writing with and against time . . . This is a project that has been

A decade later and it still does work for me. #ToPimpaButterfly

Although it is a ways out, I have collaborated with the Library of Congress for a Black Music Month event related to Marvin Gaye and #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social). Tickets are available today so if you are in/around DC June 5, 2025, it’d be great to see you! www.loc.gov/item/event-4...

February has come and gone but some events of note: *I was a guest of the High Table at Massey College as a new black faculty member at Toronto. *My interview for Arts & Sciences at UofT to discuss my arrival and #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social) www.artsci.utoronto.ca/news/i-augus...

Rest well. *cues up “Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”*

Today. After many dangers, toils, and snares, I made it to AZ so come through! grassrootzbookstore.com @dukepress.bsky.social

Last week, I (@dukepress.bsky.social) and Erica Cardwell (@feministpress.bsky.social) were treated most hospitably by @anotherstoryto.bsky.social. We had a fantastic conversation about maternal grieving, black art, the craft of writing, and process—here’s to another joint event for our next books! 🫶🏾

If you are in Phoenix, AZ next Friday at 5p MST, come through Grassrootz Books and Juice Bar (grassrootzbookstore.com) as I and Aaron Mallory of Arizona State dialogue about #StayBlackandDie (@dukepress.bsky.social). Let the occasion be the perfect matinee for your Valentine’s dinner reservation. 😉

I am grateful to have moderated Historically Speaking on the occasion of Ida B. Wells minting on the quarter; crafting and asking questions ranging from Wells as historical figure to the ambivalence around black women on currency, I count our discussion wide-ranging: www.youtube.com/live/zltD6EO...

Today. Erica and I. (@feministpress.bsky.social; @dukepress.bsky.social) 7p at @anotherstoryto.bsky.social www.eventbrite.ca/e/i-see-the-...

@anotherstoryto.bsky.social Erica Cardwell (@feministpress.bsky.social) and I. (@dukepress.bsky.social) January 31, 2025 @ 7p Register here: www.eventbrite.ca/e/i-see-the-...