The book launch of  The Fire That Time: Transnational Black Radicalism and the Sir George Williams Occupation and engage in conversation with the editors, Ronald Cummings and Nalini Mohabir, and contributors, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Nigel Westmaas, and Michael O. West, whose chapters raise questions and reflect on the unfinished business of Black radical protest. Essayist and novelist, Panashe Chigumadzi will moderate.

We are thrilled to host the launch of America, Goddam: Violence, Black Women and the Struggle for Justice which explores the combined force of anti-Blackness, misogyny, patriarchy and capitalism in the lives of Black Women and girls in the United States. Please join us as author of America, Goddam, Treva B. Lindsey talks to Melissa Harris-Perry, media host, and author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America. This is an in-person event. 

April 12 - We are thrilled to host the launch of the ground breaking collection of intimate accounts and stories of pleasure and sexual freedom from African women across the globe, The Sex Lives of African Women. Please join us in conversation with author of the  Sex Lives of African Women, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah who will share our virtual platform with the incomparable Deesha Philway, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. In her review of the The Sex Lives of African Women, Philyaw described the book as a marvelous "collection of raw, tender stories [that] captures the breath and depth of the Diaspora with the intimacy of looking in a mirror." 

March 18 - In collaboration with The Kitchen and Carolina Performing Arts, we are thrilled to host Chronicling The Hip-Hop South, a conversation between Regina Bradley, Dasan Ahanu and Kyesha Jennings on Southern Hip-Hop and Black Southern culture more broadly. Regina Bradley will speak about her book Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South which she has stated, she envisions as "a blueprint to have a more complex conversation about Southern hip-hop." 

March 4 -The launch of Veronica G. Henry's sophomore novel The Quarter Storm, the story of Haitian Vodou Priestess Mambo Raina who  must test the boundaries of her powers to solve a ritual murder in New Orleans and protect everything she holds sacred. Veronica G. Henry will be in conversation with Caldwell Turnball, author of the novel No Gods No Monsters.

February 10 - We are thrilled to host the launch of Daniel Black's novel Don't Cry For Me, a monumental novel about one family grappling with love's hard edges and the unexpected places where hope and healing take flight. This, our first event of the year, marks the beginning of our Black History Month programming. Daniel Black will be in conversation with Gabriel Bump, author of the novel Everywhere You Don't Belong. 

December 12 - A  celebration of the one year anniversary of Shackled Freedom: Black Living in the Modern American South. Dasan Ahanu will share from the poetry collection and sit down with Omisade Burney for a conversation exploring inspiration, community and craft. With performances by guest poets Wildperfection and Sh8kes.

December 2 & 3 - Karla Holloway and Blair Kelley discuss the Netflix adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, Passing which explores the complicated intersection between race, class and culture through two women's experiences of passing in 1920s New York. Join us for this spirited conversation which will be preceded by a Rofhiwa in-store screening of Passing - the film. Holloway is the author of the novel A Death in Harlem which Kirkus Reviews described as the "the spiritual successor to Nella Larsen's 1929 novel..." Blair Kelley is a historian of the African American experience who is active both in an outside the academy. She was highlighted as one of the "top tweeting historians" by History News Network.

Nov 19 - An evening of poetry and conversation with  debut author of Ghost in a Black Girl's Throat, Khalisa Rae, at her Rofhiwa Book Cafe book signing with some of the best and brightest poetry talents Durham has to offer. 

 

Nov 3 -Editors Cynthia Manick, Len Lawson, and Gary Jackson read from and discuss The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, a groundbreaking collection highlighting work from poets who have written verse within the growing tradition of Afrofuturism.

Nov 12 - Through the Night is a cinema verité portrait of three working NY mothers whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center: a mother working the overnight shift as an essential worker at a hospital; another holding down three jobs to support her family; and a woman who for over two decades has cared for the children of parents with nowhere else to turn.

October 29 - A celebration of award winning Jamaican novelist and poet Kei Miller's collection of essays, Things I have Withheld.  Kei Miller will be in conversation with UC Santa Cruz Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Xavier Livermon.

October 15 - For this conversation, we are joined by author, Anne Wynter and illustrator, Oge Mora whose incredible illustrations perfectly meet Wynter's exquisite onomatopoeia in this fabulous book. Can’t wait!

October 1 - “Erasure of Black Thought” will be a conversation among Black academics that unpacks the current challenges to freedom of expression in schools, colleges, and the public sphere in regards to racism, history, and diversity (i.e. critical race theory). The event will offer a clear-eyed view of the current slate of censorious threats, while also providing concrete action items to push back against them.

Aug 26 - We are thrilled to host our very first in-person book talk with Da'Shaun L. Harrison on August 26, 2021! Da’Shaun Harrison – a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer–offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness, foregrounding the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. 

Aug 3 - We are elated to host the launch event for Black Boy Joy on August 3, 2021. Black Boy Joy is an upcoming middle grade anthology, edited by Kwame Mbalia, NC-based author of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky. We are joined by a powerhouse team of authors and contributors to Black Boy Joy: BB Alston, Don P. Hooper, George M. Johnson, Justin A. Reynolds, and of course, Kwame Mbalia. 

These are today’s top and rising-star Black authors who have contributed genre-spanning stories to this fresh and vital middle-grade anthology about the joys and complexities of Black boyhood. Can’t wait!

June 9 - Professor Shanna Greene Benjamin and Dr. Barbara Boswell celebrate their new books and lead us in conversation about the intellectual legacies of Black Women in South Africa and the US.

Jun 2nd - We celebrate the US publication of Sifiso Mzobe's Young Blood, the novel named one of the Most Anticipated Crime Novels of 2021 by Crime Reads. Mzobe will be in conversation with novelist, short story writer and editor, Jacob Ross whose crime fiction novel, The Bone Readers won the inaugural Jhalak Prize in 2017.

Jun 15th - Join us for a spirited conversation and celebration of La Marr Jurelle Bruce's new book, How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity (Duke University Press). This event is free with registration. All are welcome, on Tuesday, June 15th at 6:00 p.m. EST.

Apr 29th - Join Blair and Rofhiwa Bookcafé for a celebration of National Poetry Month with a virtual reading by poets L. Teresa Church, Cynthia Manick, and L. Lamar Wilson, on Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m. EST.