The Trayvon Generation: A Celebration and Conversation with Elizabeth Alexander 

Online, via Zoom

Join Elizabeth Alexander for a conversation about her new book The Trayvon Generation, a meditation on the power of art and culture to illuminate America’s unresolved problem with race. Alexander invites artists and writers Reginald Dwayne Betts, Mitchell S. Jackson, Julie Mehretu, and Jacqueline Woodson, to reflect on how they confront and embrace, as artists and parents, the challenges facing young Black Americans. This program explores the act of imagination and how it converges and diverges with practices of care.

This event is presented in partnership with The Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, Arizona State University School of the Humanities.

Elizabeth Alexander is a prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author, renowned poet, educator, scholar, and cultural advocate. Dr. Alexander is currently president of the Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in the arts, culture, and humanities.

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a 2021 MacArthur Fellow, award-winning author, poet, lawyer, and outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform.

Mitchell S. Jackson is the author of the memoir Survival Math and the novel The Residue Years. His honors include a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award and he is currently the John O. Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the Creative Writing Department of ASU.

Julie Mehretu is a world-renowned painter who lives and works in New York City. She is the recipient of The MacArthur Award (2005) and the U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015). Mehretu’s mid-career survey was presented at the Whitney in 2021.

Jacqueline Woodson is the award-winning author of many books for young people and adults. She received a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship and a 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, was a National Book Award winner, and her novels for adults include Red At The Bone and Another Brooklyn.