Part coming of age narrative, part radical reflection of their life Black Boy Out of Time is an intimate memoir of a Black person in America, and how letting go of prison-based ideologies can reshape a new identity for the future of Black children.

This intimate and personal exploration dives into how self-policing, influenced by the criminal justice system and prison-based ideologies, holds Black liberation back. With a focus on personal accountability when it comes to race, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships Hari Ziyad offers a new take on how prison abolition is a viable way forward for Black children.

Joining Hari in conversation is Candice Iloh, a poet, author, and dancer whose work has been performed around the country, and George M Johnson, an award-winning author and activist whose writings have been showcased on niche and major media outlets, as well as podcasts and panels.

Please join all three for an insightful panel revolving around abolition, queerness, and Blackness in the past, present, and possible future.

Register to attend here

Bio references:

Candice Iloh is a first-generation Nigerian-American writer and dancer from the Midwest by way of Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn, New York. She is a proud graduate of Howard University and alumna of the Rhode Island Writers Colony. She received her MFA in Creative Writing for Young People at Lesley University. Her work has earned her fellowships from Lambda Literary and VONA, and a residency with Hi-ARTS, where she debuted her first one-person show. She lives in Philadelphia. Every Body Looking is her first novel.

Hari Ziyad is a cultural critic, a screenwriter, and the editor-in-chief of RaceBaitr. They are a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, and their writing has been featured in BuzzFeed, Out, the Guardian, Paste magazine, and the academic journal Critical Ethnic Studies, among other publications. Previously they were the managing editor of the Black Youth Project and a script consultant on the television series David Makes Man. Hari spends their all-too-rare free time trying to get their friends to give the latest generation of R & B starlets a chance and attempting to entertain their always very unbothered pit bull mix, Khione.

George M Johnson is a writer and activist based in New York. They have written on race, gender, sex, and culture for Essence, the Advocate, BuzzFeed News, Teen Vogue, and more than forty other national publications. George has appeared on BuzzFeed’s AM2DM as well as on MSNBC. All Boys Aren’t Blue is their debut, and was an Amazon Best Book of the Year, an Indie Bestseller, a People Magazine Best Book of the Year, and optioned for television by Gabrielle Union. The New York Times called it an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but clear eyed love for its subjects. At the time of publication, George used he/him pronouns. Speak with them on Twitter

Header Image: Book cover ‘Every Body Looking’ by Candice Iloh