Join us for a reading from the recently published A Black Philadelphia Reader with editor Louis Parascandola and authors Amy Jane Cohen and Yvonne. A landmark work featuring Mumia Abu-Jamal and Sonia Sanchez as well as numerous underrepresented Black Philadelphians, this collection is the first anthology of Black Philadelphia writers to ever be published.
Amy Jane Cohen is an educator, historian, and writer. After twenty years of teaching social studies, she became Director of Education for History Making Productions and is a contributing writer for Hidden City Philadelphia. She is author of Black History in the Philadelphia Landscape: Deep Roots, Continuing Legacy (Temple University, 2025). She was born and continues to live in Philadelphia.
Yvonne (Chism-Peace) was the first poetry editor at two pioneering feminist journals, Aphra and Ms. Yvonne has received numerous awards including two NEAs for poetry, a Leeway for fiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She has published in many venues, and is author of the epic trilogy Iwilla/Soil, Iwilla/Scourge, Iwilla/Rise (Chameleon). She was born in and continues to live in Philadelphia.
Louis J. Parascandola is Professor of Humanities at Long Island University, Brooklyn. He has edited several anthologies on Black American authors as well as a collection of writings about Coney Island. He has authored the recent A Black Philadelphia Reader: African American Writings about the City of Brotherly Love (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2025). He has two forthcoming books, one on Black Communist Eugene Gordon (University of Massachusetts Press) and another with his brother, John, on Atlantic City (Rutgers University Press). He was born and continues to live in New York City, but is a frequent visitor to Philadelphia.