Mission and Overview of the Center for Black Literature
Spearheaded by Dr. Brenda M. Greene, the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College builds on the tradition and legacy of the National Black Writers Conference and serves as a voice, mecca, and resource for black writers and the general public to study the literature of people from the African Diaspora. It is the only Center devoted to this in the country.
Through its collaborations with public schools and organizations such as the Brooklyn Public Library, the Brooklyn Museum, the Schomburg Center and Black Issues Book Review, the Center serves as a vehicle for nurturing and cultivating the critical reading and writing habits of a cross-generation of readers and writers and provides university, community and public institutions with literary programs such as conferences, symposia, book discussions, author signings and writing workshops.
The Center's intellectual approach to program activities is an integrative one that focuses on the ways in which the literary arts and cultural values inform the work of black writers and the ways in which these works influence the culture at large.
Advisory Board
Dr. Myrlie Evers-Williams
Honorary Chair
Dale Allender
Associate Executive Director,
National Council of Teachers of English
Patrick A. Buddington
Chief Marketing Officer, CaribZone Media
Richard Jones
Executive Dean, Accreditation, Quality Assurance and Institutional Effectiveness, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Louise Mirrer
President and CEO, New York Historical Society
Richard Wesley
Playwright, Screenwriter,
Chair Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing, New York University
John Edgar Wideman
Writer, Distinguished Professor,
University of Massachusetts
Marcia White. President, Personalized Skincare
Schwannah Wright
Manager of Community Involvement, Brooklyn Museum of Art
For information about the Center contact:
Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Executive Director
Center for Black Literature
bgreene@mec.cuny.edu
www.mec.cuny.edu/blacklitcenter