Centre for International Governance Innovation (
CIGI)
67 Erb St. W.\, Waterloo \; N2L 6C2
Centre for Internationa
l Governance Innovation (CIGI)
67 Erb St. W.\, Waterloo \; N2L 6C
2
In 2024\, Textil e launched Black Talk\, a literary event bringing celebrated and award-win ning Black authors to Waterloo Region for conversation and community engag ement. Black Talk 2026 features decorated Black Canadian speculative autho r Nalo Hopkinson in conversation with literary and cultural critic Donna B ailey Nurse. The evening is being hosted by Carol Duncan.
\nThis yea r&rsquo\;s event leans into the power of story to create and anchor Black identity. Stories have always been important to Black people across the Af rican Diaspora. Storytelling created a space for Black people to document their stories. Through folktales\, songs\, proverbs\, metaphors\, and so m uch more\, Black people preserved their identities and memories for future generations to engage with. Fiction created a space for us to create ours elves. Nalo and Donna's conversation will focus on Hopkinson's most recent ly novel\, Blackheart Man.
\nNalo Hopkinson will be availab le for book signing after the conversation (approximately 8:30pm). Books w ill be available for purchase courtesy of Words Worth Books.
\nPrese nted in partnership with Textile\, with support from:
\nNalo Hopkinson is a Ja maican-born Canadian speculative writer and editor. Nalo is the recipient of numerous awards\, including the California State University Eagle-Con 2 018 Octavia Butler Memorial Award\, which celebrates an author whose writi ng exemplifies the spirit of Butler's work\, and in 2021\, she was named t he Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master\, a lifetime honour from Science Fic tion Writers of America. Hopkinson is the Youngest Grand Master and the fi rst woman of African descent to receive this honour. \; Her novels &nd ash\; Brown Girl in the Ring (1998)\, Midnight Robber (2 000)\, The Salt Roads (2003)\, Blackheart Man (2024) &nd ash\; and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk (2001) often draw on Caribbean history and language\, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.
\nDonna Bailey Nurse is a prominent Black Canadian critic and curator. For three decades sh e has contributed literary articles to publications like The Walrus\, The Literary Review of Canada\, The Globe and Mail\, Maclean's\, Publishers We ekly and The Boston Globe. Donna has served as a juror for several literar y awards including The Governor General's Award for non-fiction\, The Writ ers Trust Prize for Non-Fiction and The Giller Prize. She has curated lite rary events for Luminato\, The Art Gallery of Ontario\, the Toronto Public Library and the Gardiner Museum and has interviewed dozens of literary lu minaries \; \;among them Toni Morrison\, Jamaica Kincaid\, Esi Edu gyan\, Chimamanda Adichie\, Ben Okri\, Austin Clarke and Suzette Mayr. Don na was a longtime columnist for \; CBC Radio's The Next Chapter with S helagh Rogers. She is the author of What's A Black Critic to Do? (Vol. 1 and 2)\, and the editor of Revival: An Anthology of Black Cana dian Writing. She has a two book deal with Harper Collins Canada for The Black Album\, which is a people's history of Black Canada\, a s well as a memoir of her Jamaican Canadian childhood.
\nCar ol B. Duncan is a chronicler of human stories of migration\, comm unity\, and identity. Her publications include scholarly books and article s\, creative non-fiction\, and short stories. She is a tenured full profes sor in the Department of Religion and Culture at Wilfrid Laurier Universit y. Her research focuses on Caribbean migration\, gender\, religion\, and p opular culture\, as well as on Caribbean religions in diasporic and transn ational contexts. She won the Region of Waterloo&rsquo\;s Literary Award i n 2002. Carol&rsquo\;s short stories have been published in Augur Magazine \, Tales and Feathers\, FIYAH Magazine\, PREE Magazine of Caribbean Writin g\, and Apparition Magazine. Her next short story will appear in an upcomi ng issue of the Caribbean Review of Gender Studies.
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