Estella Conwill Majozo

The Self as Writer:  Speaking From a Position of a New World

2:00 p.m.
Session 2

Estella Conwill Majozo is a Professor of English at the University of Louisville. Her books include Jiva Telling Rites (Third World Press, 1991); Libation: A Literary Pilgrimage through the African American Soul (Harlem River Press, 1991); Come Out the Wilderness: Memoir by a Black Woman Artist (The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1999); and Middle Passage: 105 Days (Africa World Press, 2002); Blessings for a New World (Third World Press, 2007). Her plays include Freedom Clothes: The Saga of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn on the Underground Railroad (Kentucky Heritage Council/Kentucky African Heritage Commission Grant 2002); and Ringshout the Route which has been developed into a National Rite of Initiation into African American Culture.

Her commissioned public art monuments (with her brother, Houston Conwill, and architect Joseph DePace) include Revelation: Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Memorial at Yerba Buena Garden, San Francisco (cited by Ebony Magazine as the most unique of all the King Monuments); Rivers: Langston Hughes Memorial at The Schomburg--a Cosmogram under which lies the ashes of poet, Langston Hughes (recognized by the Excellence in Design Award, Art Commission of New York); The Stations Project at The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University (selected by the National Endowment for the Arts as one of the best projects in the nation 1993); and The New Ringshout: Memorial Tribute to African Burial Ground in the Federal Building, New York City. Honors also include “Salute to the Seven Sisters, Pleiades Award” (2006); J. T. Stewart Literary Award at Hedgebrook (2000). Distinguished Alumni Fellow, University of Louisville, (1999).