Tag: Nicole Shawan Junior

Meet “College Try” Host Nicole Shawan Junior

Mar 16 2023 @ 7:00PM

The profound and prolific Nicole Shawan Junior joined the No, YOU Tell It! community as a storyteller for our 2020 “Coming & Going” team-up show with Lambda Literary!

That was our first Zoom show due to the pandemic, so we are extra excited to have Nicole BACK & IN PERSON as a story director and co-host at Symphony Space.

Grab your tickets here and learn more about Nicole below.

Nicole Shawan Junior (they/them) was bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of inner-city life barely survived crack cocaine’s burn. Their work appears in Oprah DailyGuernicaZoraGay MagThe Feminist Wire, and elsewhere. Nicole has received residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, Tin House, Periplus, NYFA, Lambda Literary, the San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, and more. Their literary art has received support from Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Hurston/Wright Writers Week, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, V.O.N.A., and others. Nicole is the founder of Roots. Wounds. Words.—a literary arts revolution that serves BIPOC storytellers, deputy director of PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, and former editor-in-chief of Black Femme Collective. They have guest edited for The Rumpus, and served on the editorial teams at Women’s Studies Quarterly of The Feminist Press, SLICE Magazine, and more. Nicole curated Raising Mothers’ limited Justice Involved Mothers column, which was penned by formerly incarcerated Black women.

Event Information

Mar 16 2023 @ 7:00PM

Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.)

Excited for Guest Creatives Ellie Dvorkin Dunn and Nicole Shawan Junior

Mar 16 2023 @ 7:00PM

We’re so excited Ellie Dvorkin Dunn, who hosted our recent Brooklyn Book Festival Bookend Event, is returning as a story director and host along with the fantastic Nicole Shawan Junior!

You don’t want to miss this Symphony Space show. In-person and live-stream tickets available here. Get yours today!

Event Information

Mar 16 2023 @ 7:00PM

Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th St.)

Episode 54 – Coming & Going (Part 1)

Have you ever wanted to be someone else? The opening story of “Coming & Going”— our second team-up show with Lambda Literary — follows Calvin…or as he’d like to be known, Craig, as he travels to Florida to become someone new. This journey to overcome grief caused by a death, a breakup, and an unforgiving New York City reveals that what we seek might already be inside us, even if we have to imagine our future with a new set of eyes once in a while.

Nicole Shawan Junior reads “Becoming Someone Else in Florida” written by Calvin S. Cato.

Nicole’s reading was directed by Amanda Sisk.

Bonus: For this, our first virtual show, we asked each storyteller that if we, the listeners, wished to summon them directly to our room what three items might we place in a magic circle to do so. As you see and will hear, a wide variety of ingredients are needed to complete the spell.

Top: Calvin S. Cato, Bottom: Nicole Shawan Junior

Switching it up, our next story takes us on a trip to the west coast where two lovers seek comfort in each other’s sanitized arms during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the backdrop of 2020’s chaotic energy, the two women must navigate their coping mechanisms, fears, and ultimately their love for each other in order to confront their futures — together or on their own.

Nicole Shawan Junior’s timely story, “Finding Our Way Back Home,” is read for us here by Calvin S. Cato.

Calvin’s reading was directed by Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons.

No, YOU Tell It! “Coming & Going” was AN OFFICIAL 2020 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT and made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Meet “Coming & Going” Storyteller Nicole Shawan Junior

Sep 30 2020 @ 7:30PM

Lambda Literary introduced us to our next storyteller.

We are excited to share the love and have you meet Nicole Shawan Junior! Click here to RSVP to our upcoming “Coming & Going” show.

Nicole Shawan Junior (Smith College BA | Pace University MST | Temple University JD) was bred in the bass-heavy beat and scratch of Brooklyn, where the cool of inner-city life barely survived crack cocaine’s burn. She is a black, queer and poverty-born counter-storyteller. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Lambda Literary’s anthology Emerge, Roxane Gay’s Medium platform Gay MagZORAThe Feminist WireSLICEColor BloqCURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and ActionInkwell BlackSinister Wisdom, and more. A 2021 Hedgebrook Writer in Residence, Nicole has received fellowships from New York Foundation of the Arts, Esalen, Show Us Your Spines RADAR Productions, and more. She’s an alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Tin House Summer Workshop, the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Writers Week, the Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, and VONA. Nicole is also the founder of Roots. Wounds. Words. Inc.: A Literary Arts Revolution and the Senior Nonfiction Editor at Raising Mothers: A Literary Magazine. Learn more about Nicole at www.NicoleShawanJunior.com. Follow her on Instagram @NicoleShawanJunior and on Twitter @NicoleShawan

Event Information

Sep 30 2020 @ 7:30PM

Zoom! Meeting ID: 976 7999 6439 Password: storyswap