FOCUS Presents: Writing About Our Identities

On Thursday, September 24th, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students hosted “Writing About Our Identities,” an online panel discussion about activism, art, and identity. “Writing About Our Identities” is a part of the FOCUS speaker series, a program designed to offer students and the wider university community the chance to participate in meaningful discussions with some of the foremost anti-racist writers, activists, and thinkers in the world. The panel was moderated by Tracy K. Smith, the former U.S. Poet Laureate and the current chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts. She was joined by Morgan Jerkins ’14 and Rakesh Satyal ’02. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a senior editor at ZORA. Her acclaimed collection of essays, This Will Be My Undoing was published in 2018 and her new book, Wandering in Strange Lands is in stores now. Satyal is currently an executive editor at HarperOne; his novels Blue Boy, which received the Lambda Literary Award, and No One Can Pronounce My Name are currently being made into motion pictures.