Schomburg Center Literary Festival 2023: Memoir Writing Workshop

Developing a personal statement or a personal work of non-fiction? Join Harlem Writers Guild author Hasna Muhammad, Ed.D as she shares ways to use memoir as a framework for writing personal narratives. Through memory and interactive writing exercises, participants will connect the present to the past as well as the future in order to tell their story.

Over the course of 90 minutes, participants will discover ways to:

• Increase their understanding of memoir as a literary device
• Explore items or events that activate memory.
• Experiment with time and tense in the framework of memoir
• Structure a personal narrative using memoir

Hasna Muhammad, Ed.D is a visual artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on family, social justice, education, and the human condition. Her photography has been exhibited in various cities in the United States, and her writing has been published in Medium, Essence Magazine, at Sankofa.org, and in Crisis Magazine. Hasna recently published her first book, Breathe In the Sky: Poems Prayers & Photographs.

Throughout her career as an education activist, Hasna has served as an English and writing teacher, a high school principal, and an assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and human resources. She currently provides professional preparation for individuals and organizations that focus on diversifying executive, educational, and civic leadership forces. Hasna is a 2018-2019 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow, a Moth Storyteller, and a member of the Harlem Writers Guild.

Harlem Writers Guild (HWG) is the oldest organization of African-American writers, originally established as the Harlem Writers Club in 1950 by John Oliver Killens, Rosa Guy, John Henrik Clarke, Willard Moore and Walter Christmas. The Harlem Writers Guild seeks to give African-American writers a platform to present their art in its entirety without censoring their experience of being Black in the United States of America. In addition to publishing works, the Harlem Writers Guild also acts as an organization to promote social change and an entity that hosts events to celebrate and promote their members. (source: wikipedia) Learn more here: theharlemwritersguild.org

The celebrates authors of African descent and champions literacy and books across genres to amplify Black history and culture. Festival programming features some of the most talented writers and influential figures in culture today. The festival is built on the foundation created by Arturo Schomburg–encouraging freedom of thought, the relentless pursuit of Black history, and the engagement of our imagination towards our collective freedom. 2023 marks its fifth year and will reconvene communities of book lovers to interact with their favorite authors in Harlem, USA. The festival hosts a marketplace of local organizations and vendors, NYPL mobile library, and programs for all ages. Readings, panel discussions, and workshops at the event range from prose to poetry, comic books to young adult novels, fiction and nonfiction. Visit our website at .

The festival will take place in Schomburg’s landmark building at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard, as well as outdoors on 135th Street between Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevards, on stage named after Adam Clayton Powell and Zora Neale Hurston..

PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.

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AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.

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Artwork: "Generational Wealth", 2023 by Ernest A. Ford

Photo: 2019 Schomburg Center Literary Festival, author book signing; Isseu Diouf/Schomburg Center

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, United States