Thursday, March 24, 2022 Panel 1 – Literature, Art, and Music from Lost Southern Voices 1 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar Moderator: Josh Russell Jim Clark: Don West, poet and social activist Caroline Herring: Hedy West, musician Dawn Major: William Gay, author and painter Register here.

The sixth Revival: Lost Southern Voices is March 24 – 26, 2022. Revival: Lost Southern Voices is a festival for readers that celebrates historically excluded, erased, or marginalized Southern voices. During this annual conference, invited presenters discuss Southern authors or artists whose works are out-of-print or otherwise do not receive the attention they deserve. We invite the public, scholars, students, writers, and inquisitive readers to join the conversation as we continue to discover and revive these Lost Southern Voices. The conference will be virtual again this year, and we have six truly exciting panels. There will be two Zoom panels each day of the conference, one at 1 p.m. ET, and the other at 4 p.m. ET. Several are themed on specific authors or events in Atlanta’s past.

We do want to take a moment here to remember our dear friend Valerie Boyd, who we lost recently. We will be dedicating this conference to her and honoring her memory throughout. Valerie was a brilliant author and scholar, bringing to the fore the voices of Black women authors, and championing the literary arts and literacy. Valerie’s Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston gave voice to a pioneer of African American literature. Boyd also focused her scholarship on the life and work of Alice Walker, exploring lesser-known aspects of the author’s oeuvre, such as her poetry and short stories. She was the senior consulting editor for the Bitter Southerner and an editor-at-large for UGA Press. Her last two books are forthcoming: Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker and Bigger Than Bravery: Black Writers on the Year That Changed the World. Among Valerie’s many, many accomplishments and projects, she was a longtime supporter of this conference, where she has presented her research on Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston, and was set to moderate a panel on Toni Cade Bambara this year (which she’d organized). Valerie’s authorship, scholarship and mentorship are a huge loss for the literary community. She was a fearless and formidable voice in our literary heritage. Our thoughts are with all those who knew her, all who read her, all who learned from her. You can read our full statement here if you’d like. You may also read Tina McElroy Ansa’s lovely tribute to Valerie in the AJC here. Tina will be presenting on John Oliver Killens at this year’s conference.

Thursday, March 24, 2022
Panel 1 – Literature, Art, and Music from Lost Southern Voices
1 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Josh Russell
Jim Clark: Don West, poet and social activist
Caroline Herring: Hedy West, musician
Dawn Major: William Gay, author and painter
Register here.

Panel 2 – Rediscovering Frank Yerby
4 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Eli Arnold
Valerie Matthews, Yerby scholar
Veronica Watson, Yerby scholar
Matthew Teutsch, Yerby scholar
Register here.

Friday, March 25, 2022
Panel 3 – “It’s Never Been Over”: Generational Trauma and the Atlanta Child Murders
1 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Jessica Handler
Maurice Hobson, historian
Calinda Lee, historian
Vern Smith, journalist
Register here.

Panel 4 – These Bones Are Not My Child: The Life and Work of Toni Cade Bambara
4 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Bambara scholar
Linda Holmes, Bambara biographer
Louis Massiah, Bambara filmmaker
Register here.

Saturday, March 26, 2022
Panel 5 -The Life and Work of John Oliver Killens
1 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Matt Dischinger
Tina McElroy Ansa, novelist and Killens devotee
Register here.

Panel 6 – The Day Atlanta Stood Still: Atlanta and The Legacy of the Orly Plane Crash
4 p.m. ET, Zoom Webinar
Moderator: Jim Auchmutey
Baxter Jones, arts philanthropist
Chris Moser, documentary director
Register here.

As part of this year’s conference, there will be raffles! More information on those is coming soon. Follow the festival on Facebook at @RevivalLostSouthernVoices, Twitter (@RevivalLost) and Instagram (revivallsv) for updates! You can also watch last year’s conference on the Georgia Center for the Book’s YouTube channel here.