Thursday, February 26 | 5PM-7:30PM (Doors at 4:30PM) | Modern Fuel ARC, Tett Centre Unit 305
Free entry + dinner + book signing
The Black Passport Book Launch, hosted by Sadiqa de Meijer, Poet Laureate of the City of Kingston, will feature a live poetry reading and conversation, followed by dinner and a book signing.
In Black Passport, Paul Akpomuje takes us through a journey of Black African migration in Canada, tracing the complexities of identity, the possibilities of fugitivity, the weight of home, and the ways borders, paperwork, and diasporic placemaking shape and are shaped by belonging. This poetry collection is an archive of radical remembering, bringing into view the everyday textures of space, movement, and memory as experienced by Black African migrants navigating immigration offices, airports, cities, and classrooms. In this debut collection, Akpomuje stands out in his portrayal of hope, dreams, resilience, and the enduring possibility of survival.
Event Agenda
4:30PM: Doors Open
5PM: Welcome, Opening Remarks from Stephanie Simpson, Dr. Katherine McKittrick, and John DiPaolo
5:15PM: Book Review by Dr. Adesoji Babalola
5:25PM: Live Poetry Reading with Paul Akpomuje
5:40PM: Conversation and Q+A, moderated by Sadiqa de Meijer
6:05PM: Interlude
6:10PMpm: Live Poetry Reading with Paul Akpomuje
6:25PM: Interlude
6:30PM: Vote of Thanks by Dr, Kristy Timmons, Community Mingling, Dinner, and Book Signing
Sponsored By the Revolutionary Demand for Happiness, with support from the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning, Gender Affirming Assistance Project (GAAP), Black Studies at Queen’s, Modern Fuel, The Faculty of Education at Queen’s, Griots Lounge Publishing Canada, United Way (Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington), and Novel Idea.