ReadOut 2023 presents Sunday keynote speaker author Briam Broome, winner of the 2021 Kirkus Prize for nonfiction. Broome's memoir Punch Me Up to the Gods recounts growing up poor, dark-skinned, and gay in rural Ohio. His essays explore the pressures and vulnerabilities confronting black boys and how he used his personal experiences to create the person he has become. Funding for this event is provided in part through a Florida

ReadOut 2023 and the LGBTQ Resource Center of Gulfport Public Library present Memoir: Growing Into My Self. Three award-winning authors describe their personal accounts of growing into their identities as LGBTQ people and how it integrates into their work and life. Robee Berry (she/her) is a writer, adventurer and activist. For decades the story of The Pink Divide protagonist, Lake Myers, lived in her head until the auspicious day when

ReadOut 2023 and the LGBTQ Resource Center at the Gulfport Public Library presents a lecture and discussion with author Sheree L Greer about her experience being an author. . Sheree is a writer, artist, teacher, and publisher living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers. She is the author of

The Delray Beach Public Library is hosting English for Families twice a week for five weeks from February 21 through March 30, 2023. The program includes interactive classes for adults and children that focus on developing English vocabulary and literary skills through strategic and fun story reading. Programming is designed to improve the language proficiency of individuals whose native language is not English by providing essential reading strategies needed for

In this presentation, Dr. Bireda examines the many contributions enslaved Africans and African Americans have made to American culture. Traditional culture retentions survived the Middle Passage and have influenced present-day American culture. This presentation provides surprising and previously untold facts about the impact of African and African American culture upon American culture as a whole. This presentation focuses on contributions to medicine, health, and wellness. Registration is required to attend,

This presentation introduces audiences to a variety of Florida Seminole portraits from the nineteenth century and how the portraits were used as propaganda to represent the Seminoles as a dying people. "Seminole Portraits: Reflections Across Time" challenges this long-held belief to explore changing perspectives of Native Americans and the Florida Seminole. With a focus on portraiture over time, the rich history and continued vitality of the Florida Seminole will be

The New College of Florida's Humanities Division hosts a lecture with Steven Nolt in coordination with their photographic exhibit Life In Pinecraft on view at the Carlisle Inn through February 24. Often presented as a stubbornly timeless people, the Amish are in fact a remarkably dynamic group. Doubling in population every twenty years, they now number nearly 375,000 and live in 34 states. This illustrated lecture introduces the Amish in

This presentation examines the history and culture of the Florida Maroons and Black Seminoles. Dr. Dixon discusses the origins and lives of both the Maroons and their development into the Black Seminoles from the 16th through 19th centuries. This presentation also includes an examination of the direct relationship between Black Seminoles and the growth of Florida through the Seminole Wars. Dr. Dixon is the President of Archival and Historical Research

Join the Museum of Science and History Jacksonville for POWER: A Showcase of Arts, Culture, and History on February 25th from 6 to 10 pm. This event is a dynamic fusion of arts, culture, and hisotircal experience coinciding with the Museum of Science and History's Black History Month celebration. POWER will feature a variety of live musicians, vendors of various trades, panelists, artists, and chefs, as well as an ongoing

Anniversary to Commemorate the Civil Rights Demonstrations (ACCORD) has organized a narrated history tour for each Saturday in February to coincide with Black History Month. The tour includes many of the 30+ sites of the Freedom Trail Tour. This tour will be narrated by local historian and author David Nolan. Visitors will embark the local Green Trolley Bus and learn about the rich Civil Rights and African American History of

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents "Getting Into Character: An Author's Research Adventures Around the World" with Robert Macomber. Join multi-award winning author and acclaimed speaker Robert Macomber for his sometimes hilarious and sometimes perilous tales about his research treks worldwide to write seventeen novels in his renowned Honor Series. Registration is suggested but not required to attend. The keynote presentation is held at the Gulf Coast Theater inside the

Join the Military Heritage Museum on February 25, 2023 from 9 am to 4 pm for the Charlotte Harbor Book Festival. Free and open to the public, literature lovers are encouraged to participate in local author panels and discussions, writing workshops for adults and children, booksellers row, and a keynote presentation with multi, award-winning author and acclaimed speaker Robert N. Macomber. This festival is funded in part through a Florida

St Johns River-to-Sea Loop Alliance together with the Burgess Museum will host a discussion on the DeLand Black Heritage Trail project as part of the Museum's Lemonade and Local History series. The Heritage Trail is a self-guided cycling and walking route to connect Black heritage sites and interesting and historically significant landmarks within the Greater Spring Hill area and beyond. It will encourage people to get out of their cars

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents Tough Guys Talk Turkey, a lecture by Chuck Emma. Author and lawyer Chuck Emma lectures about how to write believable action scenes and dialogue based on his experience writing a series of hard-boiled suspense novels with action scenes ranging from courtroom drama to high seas horror. Registration is suggested but not required to attend. Chuck Emma is a practicing attorney in Massachusetts and an

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents The New Man by author Richard Hale. From eating quiche to biting the bullet, images of men in literature have often been extreme. Richard Hale, who has written three coming-of-age novels, discusses how showing a character's feelings and trying to make sense of the world help define the new image of men in writing. Registration is encouraged but not required to attend. Richard Hale

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents "I Remember Mawzy" with author Myra Allen Kingsbury. Kingsbury's strongest influence was her grandmother, who she called Mawzy. Her tribute to Mawzy, a lavishly illustrated allegory of life in the mountain towns of West Virginia, is the basis of her lecture on how writers can capture, catalog, and recreate their ancestry. Registration is suggested but not required to attend. Myra Allen Kingsbury was raised

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents "Growing Your Environment" with author Paul LaFleur. Paul LaFleur has written of dying post-industrial communities and backwoods Florida to shape and molds his characters and readers. In this lecture, LaFleur discusses how to create or reproduce a story's environment to illuminate characters. Registration is suggested but not required to attend. Paul LaFleur is the author of four novels and several short stories. A native

The civil rights movement in St. Augustine drew national attention when Martin Luther King, Jr. visited twice in 1964, sparking marches, arrests, and clashes between protesters and police on the tourist-lined beaches. Local and national objectives complemented and contradicted each other in ways that affect race relations today and are examined in this presentation. Dr. J. Michael Butler is a Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at Flagler College where he

The Charlotte Harbor Book Festival presents "Finding Your Voice" with author Naomi Pringle. Gray is not an exciting color, but it is the shade books convey when storylines and characters sound alike. Naomi Pringle, author of two creative nonfiction novels, helps authors find their unique voices by crafting unique characters and dialogue. Registration is suggested but not required to attend. Naomi Pringle, author of Ginga Root Tea: An American Journey