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This episode features our conversation with Essie Chambers, which was live-streamed on April 22, 2025.

Essie Chambers is an award-winning author and producer. Her debut novel, Swift River—a Today Show “Read with Jenna” Book Club pick—won the 2024 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize and was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, Elle, and others. It was also longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, The Libby Awards, the New England Book Awards and the Barnes & Noble Book of the Year. She received an Honor Fiction award from The Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Essie started her career as a television executive at Nickelodeon/The N and BET before becoming an independent producer and filmmaker. She went on to produce the critically acclaimed PBS documentary, The New Public, and the Sundance Award–winning, Oscar-shortlisted documentary Descendant, which was released by the Obamas’ Higher Ground production company and Netflix in 2022.

She earned her MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and has received fellowships from MacDowell, the Vermont Studio Center, and Baldwin for the Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she’s about to get started on book #2.

During our conversation, we talked about Swift River.

Learn more about Essie and her body of work: https://essiechambers.com/

During the episode, I reference an interview between Harriette Cole and Essie Chambers. Watch this interview here: Dreamleapers with Harriette Cole

Find Essie on Instagram: @essiejchambers

Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

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This episode features our conversation with Brother’s Keeper Poetry Theater Ensemble, which was live-streamed on April 12, 2025.

Since 2013, Brother’s Keeper Poetry Theater Ensemble has been a beacon of hope and transformation, weaving together words, emotions, and stories to create powerful theatrical performances that resonate deeply with their audiences. The group blends elements of poetry, spoken word, theatre and music to create a unique performance which is not only entertaining and educational, but also soulful.

Passionate about fostering diversity and social change, Brother's Keeper has taken their craft into diverse spaces, performing at city halls, job corps programs, corporate offices seeking to enhance their DEI initiatives, and young adult substance abuse centers. With every stage they grace, they aim to spark dialogue, challenge perceptions, and encourage healing through the transformative power of art. Brother's Keeper has received citations of merit from the City Hall in the cities of: East Providence, Providence and Pawtucket Rhode Island.

Check out their newly released spoken word album, Father Figures, now available on Apple Music/iTunes, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

This episode of Black Writers Read is presented in collaboration with the Florence Poetry Carnival.

Find Brother’s Keeper on Instagram: @brotherskeeperpoetry

Find Florence Poetry Carnival on Instagram: @florence_poetry_carnival

Find Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

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This episode features our conversation with Nzima Hutchings (poetry. prose.), the 2023-2025 Poet Laureate for Enfield, Connecticut, which was livestreamed on April 7, 2025 to kick-off National Poetry Month.

An award-winning author, editor, educator, and workshop facilitator, Nzima Hutchings has worked with various organizations including Trinity Health of New England, Saint Francis Hospital Family Advocacy Center, Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Asnuntuck Community College, Long Wharf Theatre, Nuyorican Poets Café, Our Piece of the Pie, Massachusetts Women of Color, and Mount Holyoke College. Nzima serves on several boards of directors including for the Enfield Cultural Art Commissions, Ujima African American, and A Queen’s Narrative. She is the curator and host of Nzima's Poetry Café Show. show on Cox Public Access Studios which airs in Connecticut and Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She is also a co-founder off Hartford's L.I.T. with T'challa Williams who was interviewed on the podcast back in February of 2025. Nzima is a contributor to Heavy is the Crown, an anthology published by A Queen's Narrative - I served as the editor and Nzima read an excerpt of her poem during the bonus episode announcing the book.

To purchase books written by Nzima, visit her Amazon link here.

To listen to the bonus episode on the Heavy is the Crown anthology: Apple Podcasts; Spotify

Find Nzima on Instagram: @follownzima

FInd Black Writers Read on Instagram: @blackwritersread

Find Black Writers Read online: https://blackwritersread.com/

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