Opening Keynote Speaker Rachel E. Cargle in Conversation with Julius C. Jefferson Jr.
Thursday, February 9 • 8:45 – 9:45 a.m.
Room: The Pavilion
Rachel Cargle is an Akron, Ohio born writer, entrepreneur and philanthropic innovation. Her work and upcoming book with Penguin Random House, centers the reimagining of womanhood, solidarity and self and how we are in relationship with ourselves and one another. In 2018 she founded The Loveland Foundation, Inc., a non-profit offering free therapy to Black women and girls.
Her umbrella company, The Loveland Group houses a collection of Rachel’s social ventures including The Great Unlearn, a self-paced, donation-based learning community, The Great Unlearn for Young Learners – an online learning space for young folks launching in 2022, and Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre – an innovative literacy space designed to amplify, celebrate and honor the work of writers who are often excluded from traditional cultural, social and academic canons.
Rachel is a regular contributor to Cultured magazine, Atmos magazine and The Cut, and has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar and The New Yorker. Rachel lives & loves in Brooklyn, New York.
Closing Keynote Speaker Reyna Grande in Conversation with Jacqueline L. Ayala
Sunday, February 12 • 10 – 11:15 a.m.
Room: The Pavilion
Reyna Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the US–Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in The Distance Between Us, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
Her other books include the novels A Ballad of Love and Glory, Across a Hundred Mountains, and Dancing with Butterflies, the memoirs The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition, and A Dream Called Home, and the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings. She lives in Woodland, California, with her husband and two children. Visit ReynaGrande.com for more information.