The first Black-Indigenous woman to publish a book of essays and poems was from Hartford, Connecticut!
Her name was Ann Plato.
At sixteen years old, she would publish: Essays including biographies and miscellaneous pieces, in prose and poetry: a machine-readable transcription.
Ann Plato was an educator, writer, congregant, and connected with Hartford’s abolitionist movement.
Join us the Stowe Center for Literary Activism for a panel conversation with experts on one of Hartford’s most important historical figures!
Moderator: Erika Slocumb is a scholar of Black history. She is a PhD Candidate in Afro-American Studies and holds a Master of Science in Labor Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. At the Stowe Center, she expands the narratives of communities of the global majority, in conversation with Harriet Beecher Stowe and her work in social justice and civic engagement.
Panelists
Reverend D. Cleo Graham formerly served as the Associate Pastor and Teacher at Beneficent Congregational Church in Providence, Rhode Island. She also served as the church’s Community Minister and Sabbatical Pastor. Before joining Beneficent Church, Rev. Graham served as Co-Pastor and Teacher at Hope Congregational Church in East Providence, Rhode Island. Pastor Cleo also served as the Affiliated Protestant Chaplain at Roger Williams University. Pastor Cleo is a trailblazer as the first Person of Color ordained in the Rhode Ialand Conference United Church of Christ (2013)
Alycia D. Jenkins -aka-“Lady Abstract” is a teaching/spoken word performing artist, poet, writer, an environmental organizer, and an emerging scholar. Raised on the West Side of Chicago, Ms. Jenkins is a graduate of Trinity College who currently resides in Hartford where she has lived for over a decade. She is a proud African American feminist who believes in the power of liberation for Black families in the USA. Ms. Jenkins has been an advocate for justice since she was a teenager. She continues her advocacy by changing the world one city at a time.
Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut’s 8th State Poet Laureate, is the author of three full-length poetry collections: These Women You Gave Me, Icarus in Love, and Psalm of the Sunflower. A sought-after speaker, editor, educator, and consultant, Brim-Bell is a Professor of English at Connecticut State Community College, Capital.
Ron Welburn (Accomac Cherokee, Lenape, and African American) is an emeritus professor of the UMass Amherst English department where he taught a range of literature courses emphasizing American studies; he also co-founded the University’s Native & Indigenous Studies Certificate Program. He has authored seven poetry collections and two critical works in Native studies, one being Hartford’s Ann Plato and the Native Borders of Identity (SUNY Press 2015); and writing about jazz has long been a passion of his. Although most of his schooling was in Philadelphia, he considers suburban Berwyn his hometown. Before earning his M.A. in English at Arizona and his doctorate in American Studies at NYU, as a senior at Lincoln University he first heard of Ann Plato as, according to the esteemed J. Saunders Redding, likely having Indian ancestry.
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