Bronx Book Fair

Bronx Library Center – NYPL
310 E Kingsbridge Road, Bronx, NY 10458
Directions: B/D train to Fordham Road

BRONX BOOK FAIR SCHEDULE
12:00-12:25
• Music: NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble is a performance
ensemble grounded in the idea of providing creative literature in
performance.

12:30-12:55
• Poetry performance by Grammy Award-winning poet J. Ivey
• Storyteller Thelma Ruffin Thomas

1:00-1:55
• Contributors to the Bronx Memoir Project will read personal
selections from the book.
• Bronx Heroes ComicCon! Connect with great comic book artists from
the Bronx and NYC area.

2:00-2:25
• Bronx-born Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa will read from her book
Daughters of the Stone.
• Workshop: Writing Womanhood: Telling Our Stories in Our Voice,
facilitated by Peggy Robles Alvarado and Lorraine Currelley

2:30-3:25
• Legacy Women, an all-women’s traditional musical group rooted
in Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms and traditions, bring
their unique blend of drumming, song, and dance

3:30-4:25
• Librarian Panel Discussion: Engaging Readers: Adults, Teens and
Children. Presented by the Bronx Library Center/NYPL

4:30-4:55
• Poetry Reading: Urayoán Noel of Canto Mundo, Brian Francis of
Cave Canem and Cathy Linh Che of Kundiman Poetry Reading

5:00-5:55
• BRIO Reading: Bronx Recognizes Its Own award winners Froilan Kali
Ramirez and Nahshon Ratcliff read from recent work.
• Open Mic hosted by Five Boro Story Project. Poets, register
early, limited space.

BRONX BOOK FAIR PARTICIPANTS
Cathy Linh Che is the author of Split (Alice James, 2014), winner of
the Kundiman Poetry Prize and the Norma Farber First Book Award from
the Poetry Society of America.  A Vietnamese American poet from Los
Angeles and Long Beach, CA, she received her BA from Reed College and
her MFA from New York University.

Lorraine Currelley is a Bronx-based award-winning poet, writer,
educator, mental health counselor, and advocate. She’s the
founder/executive director of Poets Network & Exchange, Inc., a
positive and supportive space for poets and writers at all levels.

Dahlma Llanos Figueroa, author of Daughters of the Stone: A Novel was
born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of
the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx.

Brian Francis is a Cave Canem fellow from New York City. He graduated
from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in Creative
Nonfiction and has an MFA in Poetry NYU. He currently lives in the
Bronx.

J. Ivy is a Grammy Award-winning performance poet, author &
motivational speaker, and the author of Dear Father: Breaking the
Cycle of Pain. When it comes to the art of Hip-Hop Poetry, J. Ivy is
considered a visionary, a pioneer, trendsetter; and was featured
numerous times on Russell Simmons’ HBO Def Poetry.

Legacy Women is an all-women traditional musical group rooted in
Afro-Dominican and Afro-Puerto Rican traditions. They are the next
generation of NYC’s most gifted drummers, singers, and dancers of
Afro-Caribbean music, including Palos, Congos, Slaves, and Bomba, the
Afro-Indigenous roots music of the Caribbean.

Urayoán Noel is a poet, performer, scholar, translator, and
assistant professor of English and Spanish at NYU. He is the author
of the critical study In Visible Movement: Nuyorican Poetry from the
Sixties to Slam (University of Iowa Press, 2014) and several books of
poetry in English and Spanish. He lives in the Bronx.

NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble, Inc. is a not-for-profit
incorporated performance ensemble, Inc. grounded in the idea of
providing creative literature in performance.   Our mission is to
promote the creative literature of Puerto Rican and Latin American
writers in the United States while providing artistic opportunities
to performing artists of color.

Froilan Kali Ramirez is an artist, percussionist, photographer, and
writers born in Spanish Harlem, and spent his formative “Wonder
Years” in the South Bronx. Painting since age 12, Ramirez has
continuously cultivated his Love for music and art. He is a recipient
of of the Bronx Council of the Arts’ BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its
Own) grant.

Nahshon Ratcliff was born in Los Angeles, CA and is an artist,
writer, and model with a diverse background in film and television
broadcasting. He is a recent winner of the BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its
Own) grant. Nahshon is currently developing his first short film,
Shooting Range.

Peggy Robles-Alvarado is a tenured New York City educator and
award-winning author of Conversations With My Skin and Homenaje A Las
Guerreras/ Homage To The Warrior Women. Peggy has been featured on
HBO Habla Women, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, as well as other
culturally notable venues throughout the tri-state area.

Thelma Ruffin Thomas is a storyteller, performs throughout New York
City and along the eastern seaboard. She has traveled all over the
world telling stories in Tanzania, Brazil, Ghana, Coast Rica, South
Africa, Russia, and Australia.

Charlie Vázquez is the Director of the Bronx Writers Center and the
author of the novels Buzz and Israel (2004) and Contraband (2010).

The Bronx Book Fair is a collaborative effort by Blind Beggar Press,
Bronx Library Center/New York Public Library, Lorraine Currelley,
Literary Freedom Project, NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble,
Inc., and Peggy Robles-Alvarado.

The Bronx Book Fair is supported with a grant from the Bronx Council
on the Arts through the New York State Council on the Arts
Decentralization Program. Additional support was provided by
AALBC.com, African Voices, The Bronx Museum of the Arts,
BronxMama.com, Casita Maria Arts & Education Center, Total Equity
Now, and WNYC Radio.

Official website: www.BronxBookFair.com
Facebook: @BronxBookFair

For more info, visit Bronx Book Fair on Facebook.