About this Event
We are excited to host Mara Brock Akil for her debut novel in conversation with Jemele Hill here in Detroit on July 2nd. Where she has many fans of her work, Sorority Sisters and early supporters of this novel.
We wecolme you to join us for a celebratory event to locally with a rich conversation, photo session and signed book. The event will be an hour and half long and doors will be at 5:30pm.The aseating is unassigned.Attendees will recieve a signed book when they arrive to the venue.
There are admission tickets at this link. The ticket include a signed copy of The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, MI tax and venue support. This will be evening to remeber.
Save Your Seat!
Mara Brock Akil, the award-winning creator of Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever, pens an emotionally enthralling debut novel about enduring love, world-shattering secrets, and self-awakening.
The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is at once a deeply moving and provocatively gripping novel that shows when you dig deep enough into the shadows of your life, light can be revealed. It’s a novel of broken lovers, a fractured family, and distant friendships all making their way back to one another.
About the Author
Mara Brock Akil is an award-winning writer, producer, director, and showrunner, known for her groundbreaking body of work including Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, and Forever. Mara is the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America and the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award from the NATPE, among other accolades. In 2021, Mara expanded her commitment to nonprofit work by launching her own Los Angeles based writing residency, The Writers Colony, which supports underrepresented writers to strengthen their craft. she is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc..
In coversaton with
The Emmy award-winning former host of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and 2018 NABJ Journalist of the Year, Jemele Hill is a staff writer for The Atlantic, where she covers sports, race, politics, and culture. She is also the host of Spotify’s “Jemele Hill is Unbothered” podcast, the cohost with Cari Champion of VICE TV's CariandJemele: Stick to Sports, and producer of a Disney/ESPN documentary series with Colin Kaepernick. She grew up in Detroit, graduated from Michigan State University, and lives in Los Angeles.
“Akil’s literary debut reads as an exquisite examination of life seasoned with the rare honesty of perspective—it is an unflinching confession of a woman’s becoming, infused with timeless truth. The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is as immersive as a deep friendship: disarming, unsettling, and profoundly intimate. Akil’s characters are unforgettable not because they are extraordinary creatures but because they are drawn with such honesty that they feel known, their lives feel lived, and their emotions deeply resonate. As such, The Revelation of Dionne Daphne is more than a novel; it is an act of witnessing—a story that feels as though it could be true, if only one had the courage to tell it.”—Jayne Allen, bestselling author of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
“In The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, Akil offers readers that most precious of writerly gifts: a story that feels achingly, beautifully, honest. Set in the early 90s but with concerns that still resonate today, this lovingly-rendered novel will live on in your head and your heart.”—Angela Flournoy, bestselling author of The Wilderness
“Mara Brock Akil—with sharp, precise strokes of her pen—gives us yet another enduring American love story, one that dares to center the interiority of Black female life with honesty and grace. In The Revelation of Dionne Daphne, Akil crafts a bold, intimate, and unapologetic portrait of a woman unraveling—and remaking herself—in the shadow of fear, desire, and memory. At once a psychological excavation and a cultural mirror, this novel interrogates the cost of silence and the fragile architectures of success, love, and selfhood. A deeply felt and necessary work. I didn’t want it to end.”—Tara M. Stringfellow, bestselling author of Memphis
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Garden Theater, 3929 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, United States
USD 24.05 to USD 47.11
