JOY GODDESS Oct & Nov Book Tour Three months in and my book tour has taken on a life of its own! Just as I'd hoped, I'm sharing A'Lelia Walker's story while also seeing old friends & making new connections in every city I visit. I hope to see you at one of my stops aleliabundles.com/events/

On this day - which will be remembered a century from now as a day of unvarnished, aggressive & blatant racism - I was encouraged and fortified by a generous email from a self-described "WASP from Pittsburgh" who had just finished reading my "Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance."

10/7 at 7 pm ET Join @dolenperkinsvaldez.bsky.social & me for a Zoom chat about our latest books: Dolen's "Happy Land" & my "Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance." We'll share research, writing & storytelling strategies that led to our award-winning books Register at bit.ly/4pMRh4n

Although this 9/13 Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture embroidery workshop celebrating #MadamWalker is fully booked, I wanted to share a creative way that artists still draw inspiration from Madam Walker's legacy. bit.ly/4m8RZFZ

9/15 IN PERSON & VIRTUAL at 7 pm ET -- Hope to see you at DC's National Archives for a special evening when I'll talk with PBS NewsHour's Geoff Bennett about my book, "Joy Goddess." Hope you'll stay for the 8 pm book signing & champagne toast! Register at bit.ly/3JCFsNt

Love this video promo for my 9/15 Joy Goddess book talk and champagne toast hosted by the National Archives Foundation at 7 p.m. at DC's National Archives at 701 Constitution Avenue, NW. Enjoy! Here's the link to register for the IN PERSON or VIRTUAL program: bit.ly/3JCFsNt

Joy Goddess Book Tour Stops for September 2025. Hope to see you in Baltimore, NY, DC, Charlotte, Atlanta and on-line. Details on my website at www.aleliabundles.com

TONIGHT 9/9 IN-PERSON & VIRTUAL I hope you'll join me at CUNY's Graduate Center at 6:30 pm ET when I'll be talking about my book "Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance," writing biography & organizing research with Eric K. Washington. Here's the registration link bit.ly/4gjgf7j

New summer dates for my Joy Goddess book tour! Headed to EssenceFest for a book talk & signing in the Morial Convention Center at 1 pm on 7/5. Hope to see you in DC, Martha's Vineyard, Atlanta, Miami, Indy and Baltimore. More stops to come with details here and on my website www.aleliabundles.com

I'm filled w/ gratitude for all the friends who came to the booksignings in NY, DC, Philly, Cambridge & Indy during these first 3 weeks of my Joy Goddess book tour. I hope you all enjoy learning more about A'Lelia Walker's Harlem Renaissance life 🙏 @genesislmorales for creating this lively reel!

I hope you'll enjoy hearing about A'Lelia Walker's version of "Eat, Pray, Love" as she travels to Paris, London, Monte Carlo, Rome, Nice, Cairo, Palestine, Jerusalem and Addis Ababa in 1921 and 1922. youtu.be/_9m3ztG_9wQ?...

From LitHub: I now know that my Walker biographies place me in a long tradition of Black women who've written about their female forbears. Our elders insinuate themselves & insist that they not be forgotten...I’m more committed than ever to write books that help young people know their history.

"Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance” launches June 9 at the Schomburg just steps away from the site of the 136th Street Harlem townhouse where A’Lelia Walker hosted 1920s parties at her Dark Tower. (Registration links for each stop are in the thread below.)

JUNE 11 in WASHINGTON, DC! I'd love to see you at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at 901 G Street, NW from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for my first Washington, DC "Joy Goddess" book event. The event is free but the library requires registration. Here's the link dclibrary.libnet.info/event/13634502

I hope you enjoy this @wgbh.org "Under the Radar with Callie Crossley" intvu about my new book, Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance (coming 6/10 from Scribner). Callie, an interviewer par excellence, asked all the right questions to get to the heart of the story. bit.ly/4ky6aUX

What a joy to speak w/ @publisherswkly.bsky.social about why I wrote "Joy Goddess" about my great-grandmother and how I draw parallels between the Harlem Renaissance creatives and the irrepressible urge to create now despite the backlash to our gifts and our words. My answers in the thread below.

On 4/17 from 1:50 pm-2:20 pm ET, I'll be talking abt "Joy Goddess" on a panel w/ authors Molly Beer & Jane Harrington for @libraryjournal.bsky.social's Day of Dialog featuring "the biggest forthcoming books for summer/fall 2025." Registration is free. Here's the link bit.ly/4jtZBly

NEW YORK FRIENDS: For an enjoyable afternoon, I hope you'll check out Duke Ellington birthday celebration on April 26 at 2 pm at The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. It's a beautiful, tree-filled setting and a convenient subway ride from Manhattan on the IRT#4 train. www.woodlawn.org/conservancy/...

At last month's @biographersintl.bsky.social BIO"Telling the Stories of Black Lives though Biography" conference, I was honored to share my thoughts on biography, history and this urgent moment when our stories are being erased & declared illegal. Here's a link to my keynote.https://bit.ly/4j7W0tv

We're two months away from launching Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance. Hope to see you at one of my book tour stops. I'll be posting more dates here & on my website www.aleliabundles.com You can pre-order on Bookshop.org, simonandschuster.com & wherever books are sold online.

Black Biography Conference in Montgomery, AL 3/21-22. If ever there were a time to tell our stories, it is now! Featuring authors Eric K. Washington, Tamara Payne @soulistaphd.bsky.social @davidgreenberg.bsky.social @rachelswarns.bsky.social & @alexispauline.bsky.social Register at bit.ly/4gT64Fq

Thanks @sevangelistany.bsky.social Love seeing Madam Walker in such good company!

Hope you enjoy this as much as I do. It's the inspiration I needed to start my day and to make it through heaven only knows what chaos is in store for this next 24 hours. youtu.be/b0Ezn5pZE7o?...

Day 3 BHM2025 1 of 9 The publication of Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance on June 10th marks my fifth biography, but my fascination w/ the genre began in elementary school during the late 1950s when I read several books in Bobbs-Merrill's Childhood of Famous Americans series

1 of 12 Day 2 BHM: Today’s books are W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1903 The Souls of Black Folk, Lerone Bennett’s 1962 Before the Mayflower and the 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission Report, which I first read them more than 50 years ago.

1/9 BHM Day 1: |When I was in high school during the late 1960s, Black history was rarely taught in predominantly white American schools like the ones I attended in suburban Indianapolis & though I received an excellent public school education that prepared me to attend Harvard College in 1970…

1 of 3: On this first day of Black History Month, I’m kicking off 28 days of books and documentaries that helped shape my knowledge of American history. I invite you to reply with books, docs & articles that have inspired, stimulated & fortified you so that we create our own syllabus.

I hope you can join me & Eric K. Washington on 2/11 at 7 pm when we talk about iconic Harlem Renaissance figures who are buried at Woodlawn Cemetery including A’Lelia Walker, Red Cap Chief James H. Williams, Florence Mills, Duke Ellington & W. C. Handy. Register at bit.ly/3CvpJN4

Is 2025 the year you're going to finish writing that book? If it's biography, I hope you'll join us in Montgomery 3/21-22 Featured authors David Greenberg, Tamara Payne, @rachelswarns.bsky.social, Eric K. Washington, Tanisha Ford & @alexispauline.bsky.social Register at bit.ly/4gT64Fq

Excited to launch my year of "Joy Goddess" at the AHA's opening plenary -- "100th Anniversary of The New Negro" -- w/ Gene Andrew Jarrett, Denise Murrell (The Met's HR exhibition curator), David Levering Lewis (author "When Harlem Was in Vogue") & moderator @jelaniya.bsky.social Jan 3 in NYC

What a joy to speak with Tom Alvarez on his "On the Aisle" podcast! Here's the link bit.ly/3ZRl54I Ever grateful to Tom for his vision in the 1970s to produce a doc about the Madam Walker Co. for local Indianapolis TV news. Love how he continues to lead the conversation on culture and entertainment.

Nikki Giovanni (1943-2024) She was the inspiration I needed as a young writer. In the early 1970s when few Black women writers were being published, her poetry books were on my desk. When I learned that we shared a June 7 birthday with Gwendolyn Brooks and Prince, I claimed them as kindred spirits.

I'm new to BlueSky. Looking for my peeps. Writers. Biographers. Journalists. People who care about freedom, democracy, social justice, facts, accurate history.