National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) African American Read-In

A National Tradition of Literary Witness

The African American Read-In (AARI) is a national literacy initiative established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Since its founding, the Read-In has invited communities across the country to gather publicly and intentionally to read works by Black authors.

Each February, thousands of schools, colleges, libraries, churches and community centers participate in what has become the nation’s first and oldest event dedicated specifically to celebrating Black literature.

The purpose is both simple and radical:

To center Black voices
To honor literary traditions
To affirm that Black writing is foundational to American intellectual and cultural life

The Read-In is not simply an event. It is an act of recognition, an intervention against erasure and a communal ritual of reading aloud and reading together.

At UAlbany, the Writing and Critical Inquiry (WCI) Program proudly joins this national tradition.

2027 UAlbany African American Read-In: Black Dimensions of Health

In 2027, the UAlbany Read-In will expand into a four-day exploration titled "Black Dimensions of Health."

Health is often reduced to the physical body, but Black communities have long understood health as multidimensional. Health is spiritual, emotional, communal, environmental, intellectual and political.

The 2027 Read-In will explore health through a Black lens across literature, film, art, scholarship and making. Over four days, the campus and broader community will gather for daytime and evening sessions that examine:

Mental and emotional wellness
Reproductive justice and bodily autonomy
Environmental justice and land
Spiritual traditions and ancestral healing
Disability justice and embodied knowledge
Foodways, movement and communal care
Cultural memory as a form of survival

Through readings, screenings, performances, scholarly talks and creative activations, the 2027 Read-In will ask:

What does it mean to define health on our own terms?
What wisdom lives in Black artistic and literary traditions about healing?
How do we move from surviving toward thriving?

This next chapter continues UAlbany’s commitment to the national African American Read-In tradition while expanding its scope into interdisciplinary, multi-day programming. More details will be announced in Fall 2026.

Past African American Read-Ins at UAlbany

2026 Read-In: Black Speculative Futures

Marcus Kwame Anderson and El-Ra Radney speak at the 2026 African American Read-in.

In 2026, the Writing and Critical Inquiry Program expanded the Read-In into a day-long festival of speculative imagination, storytelling, scholarship and artistic practice.

The February 21, 2026, event brought together students, faculty, staff, artists and community members for a multi-session experience that blended literary celebration with creative activation.

The day included:

A morning grounding session with continental breakfast and opening reflections
A featured talk by B. Sharise Moore on Afrofuturism and Black women’s futurity
A midday storytelling session and keynote conversation with Marcus Kwame Anderson
A creative writing and speculative world-building workshop with D. Colin
A zine-making activation space
A closing performance and poetic offering
Library partnership featuring curated book displays and expanded Black speculative collections

Throughout the day participants read excerpts from Black speculative texts, engaged in dialogue across disciplines and explored how imagination functions as a method of survival, critique and world-building.

Rather than a single reading hour, the 2026 Read-In functioned as a portal that invited the campus community to consider how Black literature shapes not only how we remember the past, but how we imagine the future. Watch videos from the 2026 event.

Demonstrating what is possible when literacy, art, scholarship and gathering converge, the event was supported through campus partnerships with:

2025 Read-In: Celebrating Nikki Giovanni in honor of Dr. Stephanie Hassan Richardson

On March 1, 2025, family, friends and colleagues gathered in UAlbany’s Assembly Hall to celebrate the incredible lives of legendary writer Nikki Giovanni (June 7, 1943, to December 9, 2024) and UAlbany alum and late Writing and Critical Inquiry director, Dr. Stephanie Hassan Richardson (June 8, 1975, to October 28, 2024).

Upon becoming Director of the Program in Writing & Critical Inquiry in 2023, it was one of Dr. Hassan Richardson’s aspirations that WCI would become a host for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) African American Read-In (AARI), a national and enduring tradition.

It was bittersweet that the inaugural WCI hosting of the AARI would be in part a memorial for Dr. Hassan Richardson and one of her and her family’s favorite authors, Ms. Giovanni.

The event was headlined by Dr. Hassan Richardson’s family: Natalie Day Hassan, Tiffany Tarver, Dayatra Hassan, Ajeenah Alwakeel and Khadijah Jeader.

Family recounted stories and read selections from the work of Nikki Giovanni, one of Stephanie’s and the family’s favorite poets.
Two of Dr. Hassan Richardson’s dissertation committee members, UAlbany English professor Dr. Laura Wilder and University of Virginia professor and former UAlbany English professor Dr. Tamika L. Carey spoke eloquently about Dr. Hassan Richardson’s commitment to culturally inclusive rhetorics.
UAlbany professor Dr. Kyra Gaunt performed a musical homage.
Friends, family and colleagues in the room and on Zoom read favorite African American authors’ works and shared moving recollections of Dr. Hassan Richardson.
Dr. Hassan Richardson’s son Hershel concluded the event.