Kaila Adia Story, PhD is an associate professor in the Departments of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Pan-African Studies, as well as the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair at the University of Louisville. She is the author of The Rainbow Ain't Never Been Enuf: On The Myth of LGBTQ+ Solidarity, which comes out this May. She is also the co-creator, co-producer, and cohost of Louisville Public Media’s Strange Fruit: Musings on Politics, Pop Culture, and Black Gay Life, a popular award-winning podcast. Her research examines the intersections of race and sexuality, with special attention to Black feminism, Black lesbians, and Black queer identity.

IG: @doctressstory

Facebook: Kaila Adia Story

Threads: @doctressstory

BlueSky: @doctressstory.bsky.social

Website: www.doctressstory.com

Alexis Pauline Gumbs’

Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde

Book Reading Information:

https://www.charisbooksandmore.com/event/survival-promise-eternal-life-audre-lorde-homecoming-celebration-alexis-pauline-gumbs-and

Book Reading Registration:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/survival-is-a-promise-the-eternal-life-of-audre-lorde-tickets-938622193247?aff=oddtdtcreator

A queer black troublemaker, a black feminist love evangelist and a prayer poet priestess,

Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs was the first scholar to research the Audre Lorde Papers at Spelman College, the June Jordan Papers at Harvard University, and the Lucille Clifton Papers at Emory University during her dissertation research. We are eagerly awaiting her forthcoming biography, Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde on August 20, 2024.

https://www.alexispauline.com/

Alexis’s work as a media maker and her curricula for participatory digital education have been activated in 143 countries. Her digital distribution initiative BrokenBeautiful Press, her work as co-founder of Quirky Black Girls and her loving participation in the Women of Color Bloggers Network in the early 2000’s established her as one of the forerunners of the social media life of feminist critical and creative practice. Alexis has been honored with many awards from her communities of practice including being lifted up on lists such as UTNE Readers 50 Visionaries Transforming the World, The Advocate’s 40 under 40, Go Magazines 100 Women We Love, the Bitch 50 List, ColorLines 10 LGBTQ Leaders Transforming the South, Reproductive Justice Reality Check’s Sheroes and more. She is a proud recipient of the Too Sexy for 501C-3 trophy, a Black Women’s Blueprint Visionary Award and the Barnard College Outstanding Young Alumna Award.

From 2017-2019, Alexis served as visiting Winton Chair at University of Minnesota where she collaborated with Black feminist artists in the legacy of Laurie Carlos to create collaborative performances based on her books Spill and M Archive. During that time she served as dramaturg for the award winning world premiere of Sharon Bridgforth’s Dat Black Mermaid Man Lady directed by Ebony Noelle Golden.

Alexis is a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize Winner in Poetry. Alexis’s most recent book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals won the 2022 Whiting Award in Nonfiction.

Alexis was a 2020-2021 National Humanities Center Fellow, funded by the Founders Award, and is a 2022 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.

Original Photography of Alexis Pauline Gumbs by:

Sufia Ikbal-Doucet

Graphic Design of cover art image by:

Angela Denise Davis

This book party was hosted on May 27, 2023, at Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia. It featured esteemed writer Sharon Bridgforth in conversation with ZAMI NOBLA creative director Angela Denise Davis in celebration of bull-jean & dem/dey back.

You can view the YouTube video of this event at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EcaVl7dxo

The ZNP previous interview of Sharon Bridgforth:

https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/show/zaminobla/id/21629876

Bull-jean & dem/dey back is a collection that unites two performance/novels centered on the southern-Black-butch-heroine, bull-jean. The Lambda Literary Award-winning bull-jean stories was first published by RedBone Press in 1998 and follows the journey of love rekindling throughout the lifetimes of bull-dog-jean. After a twenty-two-year hiatus, bull-dog-jean triumphantly returns in bull-jean/we wake. As the Narrator grieves the loss of their elders and seeks healing, they summon bull-jean for guidance. Be sure not to miss this inspiring event!

A 2022 Winner of Yale's Windham Campbell Prize in Drama, Sharon Bridgforth is 2020-2023 Playwrights’ Center Core Member, a 2022-2023 McKnight National Fellow and a New Dramatists alumnae. She has received support from The Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Creative Capital, MAP Fund and the National Performance Network. Her work is featured in Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Mouths of Rain an Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought and Feminist Studies Vol 48 Number 1, honoring 40 years of This Bridge Called by Back and But Some of Us Are Brave! Sharon has had the privilege of benefiting from support from the ZAMI NOBLA and Charis Books communities since 1998, when she toured with the RedBone Press edition of the bull-jean stories. In her new book, bull-jean & dem/dey back (53rd State Press) bull-jean returns in two performance/novels - both will be produced as main stage productions at Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in 2023. More at:

https://www.sharonbridgforth.com