Author Jacqueline Woodson to Speak on ‘Why I Write’ At LP2 Speaker Program on Unmasking Bias

Author Jacqueline Woodson to Speak on ‘Why I Write’

At LP² Speaker Program on Unmasking Bias

Oct. 21 live event will be open to the public and live-streamed

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2022–The Lifelong Peer Learning Program (LP²), a program of the CUNY Graduate Center, will feature award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson speaking on “Why I Write: How I Got Here” in its first live event since the onset of Covid-19. The event, sponsored jointly by the LP² Diversity Committee’s Unmasking Bias Series and its [email protected] speaker program, will be open to the public and be live-streamed.

The event, the first in the peer learning program’s Fall 2022 Public Programming Speaker Series, will take place at 1:00 PM on Oct. 21 at Elebash Recital Hall at the CUNY Graduate Center, Fifth Avenue @ 34^th Street, New York.

Jacqueline Woodson, a critically acclaimed and award-winning author, explores the issues of race, gender and class by writing the lives of black families, thereby giving her readers a sense of this nation’s hidden history.  In 2020, when she received a MacArthur grant, the MacArthur Foundation wrote that her works “reflect the complexity and diversity of the world.” The New York Times has written, “Jacqueline Woodson transformed children’s literature. Now she’s writing for herself. The award-winning author is on a mission to diversify publishing.”

Among her many awards, Ms. Woodson has received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir, the children’s book, Brown Girl Dreaming and 4 Newberry Honors. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

Her adult book, Red at the Bone, was a New York Times bestseller and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist.

To register for Jacqueline Woodson’s talk on October 21 please click here.

About LP²

The Lifelong Peer Learning Program (LP²), which was founded in New York in 1962 as the first peer-based adult learning program in the U.S., has become the influential model for the expansion of adult learning to more than 500 campuses. Since 2020, it has been affiliated with the CUNY Graduate Center. Further information about LP², including its offerings of study groups, history and community activities can be found on the LP² website (www.lp2nyc.org).

About the Graduate Center of The City University of New York

The CUNY Graduate Center is a leader in public graduate education devoted to enhancing the public good through pioneering research, serious learning, and reasoned debate. The Graduate Center offers ambitious students nearly 50 doctoral and master’s programs of the highest caliber, taught by top faculty from throughout CUNY — the nation’s largest urban public university. Through its nearly 40 centers, institutes, initiatives, and the Advanced Science Research Center, the Graduate Center influences public policy and discourse and shapes innovation. The Graduate Center’s extensive public programs make it a home for culture and conversation.