Moderator, “Muzzled Expressions,” main conference panel, Washington Writers Conference, Bethesda, MD, May 13, 2023.
Black Art/Literature
Lecturer [on the work of James Baldwin]: Launch of AU Encounters James Baldwin program, American University, Washington DC, January 22, 2025.
Guest Facilitator, “An Unbent Reflection: Black Genius and Black Joy in the Rediscovered Works of Zora Neale Hurston,” through the DC Public Library & Women’s History Museum on Zora Neale Hurston’s Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, Martin Luther King Library, Washington, DC, August 24, 2024.
Reader: Toni Morrison Tribute, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, February 15, 2020.
Featured speaker: “Protest Poetry and the Legacy of Ntozake Shange,” A Continuing Talk about Race series, 14th Street Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC, December 2, 2018.
Presenter: “NGH, WHT’s on Your Reading List? (Considering What’s Canonical in the Hip Hop Studies Classroom)” Paper presented at Remixing the Art of Social Change teach-in, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, Nov. 4, 2016.
Panelist: WVAU’s student-led panel on Hip Hop and activism: “The Significance of Kendrik Lamar’s ‘Alright,’” American University, Washington, DC, March 22, 2016.
Organizer and facilitator: “’You Must Learn’: The Legacy of Hip Hop Scholarship” talk at Bender Library by Words, Beats, Life executive director, Mazi Mutafa, American University, Washington, DC, March 21, 2016.
Presenter: “Remixing Blues People for the Classroom: Using Baraka’s Book and Digitally Archived Sound to Historically Situate Hip Hop,” Paper presented at Remixing the Art of Social Change teach-in, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC, Nov. 12-14, 2015.
Panelist, [Critical reading of culturally biased material], Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research Conference, American University College of Arts and Sciences, Washington, DC, March 25, 2023.
Cofacilitator, with Teo Valdés, “Writin’ and Citin’” [Workshop on academic citation conventions]. School of Education doctoral residency, American University, September 30, 2022.
Presenter, with Maddox Pennington, “Antiracist Pedagogy,” Faculty DEI Discussion Series, American University College of Arts and Sciences, Washington, DC, March 15, 2021.
Cofacilitator: Decoloniality group in “Updating Your Materials with Antiracist Best Practices,” 32nd Annual Ann Ferren Conference on Teaching, Research, and Learning, American University, January 8, 2021.
Organizer, Department of Literature and Library Antiracist Teach-In I and II, Feb 5, 2020 & August 26, 2020.
Interviewed in “AU Launches Anti-Racist Pedagogy Library Subject Guide: Unveiled at First Anti-Racist Teach-In,” by Patty Hausman, College of Arts and Sciences News, August 28, 2020.
Panelist, “Antiracism and Decoloniality in the Humanities,” American University Antiracist Policy and Research Center event, July 22, 2020.
Presenter: “Content and Innuendo in K-12 History Books: The Need for Undergraduate Deprogramming and Teacher Reeducation,” Term Faculty Scholarship Forum, American University, Washington, DC, February 12, 2020.
Presenter: “Counter-Narratives and Balancing Narratives in Strangers in their Own Land,” College Writing Program Pre-Semester Colloquium, American University, Washington, DC, August 22, 2018.
Presenter, with Prof. Molly Dondero: “A Book in Your Own Class: Teaching Strangers in their Own Land,” University-wide teach-in session on the freshman Writer as Witness text. American University Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning, Washington, DC, August 16, 2018.
Panelist: “Balancing Act: Neutrality in the Classroom?” Association of Writers and Writing Programs Book Fair and Convention, Tampa, Florida, March 7-11, 2018.
Presenter, with Prof. Adam Tamashasky and Prof. Amanda Choutka: “You Gon’ Be Alright Teaching [Jeff Chang’s] We Gon’ Be Alright.” University-wide teach-in session on the freshman Writer as Witness text. American University Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning, Washington, DC, August 17, 2017.
Presenter: “Teaching Tips and Self-Care Ideas for Facilitators and Peer Leaders,” AU x 2 First-Year Curriculum on Social Identity and Race, American University, Washington, DC.
Presenter: “Mindfully Constructed Class Culture: Tools to Teach Intersectionally, Multiculturally, and Cross-Racially” presentation with librarian Derrick Jefferson, 28th Annual Ann Ferren Conference on Teaching, Research, and Learning, American University, January 13, 2017.
Presenter: “S Street Rising and Counter-Narratives,” College Writing Program Pre-Semester Colloquium, American University, Washington, DC, August 24, 2016.
Panelist: “Beyond ‘Diversity’: Alternative Approaches to Anti-Racist Pedagogy,” 27th Annual Ann Ferren Conference on Teaching, Research, and Learning, American University, Washington, DC, Jan 8, 2016.
Social Justice/Anti-Racism
Panelist, with Hollynd Karapetkova and Sean Murphy, “Literary Activism: Advocacy in Action: A Discussion with Contemporary Writers,” Marymount University 2025 Ethics Week, Arlington VA, February 12, 2025
Panelist, [on the effect of “The Great Replacement Theory” on minority participation in our democracy], Muslim Public Affairs Council webinar, Washington, DC, February 22, 2023.
Moderator, “Black Women in White Spaces,” Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC, January 22, 2023.
Discussant, with Dave Trachtenberg and David Keplinger, “Mindful Inclusion: Practicing Self-Care with Compassionate Action,” Mindfulness Initiative, American University, Washington, DC, Nov 10, 2022.
Roundtable Participant, Launch of the Reimagined Antiracist Research and Policy Center, American University, Mindfulness Initiative, September 22, 2022.
Presenter, with Meg Bentley and Núria Villanova, [Antiracism in the Hard Sciences], Faculty DEI Discussion Series, American University College of Arts and Sciences, Washington, DC, Dec. 15, 2021.
Presenter: “From the Gap Between Mask and Skin: #Dontmutedc as Radical Black Resistance to Epicolonial Audacity” on “Sorry Not Sorry: Historical Refusal and Black Art” panel, Build as We Fight, Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, Honolulu, HI, November 8, 2019.
Presenter: “’Who Controls the Past, Controls the Future; Who Controls the Present, Controls the Past’ (or What Goldstein’s Book and Winston’s Diary Reveal about the Buried History of British Imperialism).” American University Department of Literature Colloquium on George Orwell’s 1984, American University, Washington, DC, October 18, 2017.
Panelist: Forum on the Charlottesville Riot, A Continuing Talk about Race series, 14th Street Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC, September 3, 2017.
Host: “Peacemaking in the Nation’s Capitol: A Talk with Human Rights Activist Ronald Moten,” American University, Washington, DC, October 20, 2016.
Panelist: “Writing through Trauma” Part II, Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections Conference, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, Feb 6, 2021.
Panelist: “Writing a Better Future: The Sociopolitical Power of Storytelling,” 1455 Literary Festival, Winchester, VA, July 17, 2020.
Panelist: “Writing through Trauma,” 1455 Summer Literary Festival, Winchester, VA, July 19, 2020.
Featured in “Housekeeping and the Hybrid Text” [podcast] interview with Sarah Trembath, by V. Efua Prince, womenandwriters.com, February 5, 2020.
Panelist: “Does Size Matter?” [Discussion on Publisher Choice.] Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections Conference, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, May 12, 2018.
Panelist: “Poetry of Engagement: A Panel Discussion.” Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections Conference, George Mason University, Arlington, VA, May 12, 2018.
