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This episode features our conversation with Johnisha Matthews Levi, which was live-streamed on September 27, 2026.

Born and raised in Washington, DC, Johnisha Matthews Levi brings a critical eye to her writing based on her experiences as a development professional for social impact nonprofits, a former litigation attorney, and a culinarian. She graduated from Harvard University, New York University School of Law, and Johnson & Wales University. Her writing has appeared in Yes! Media, Wildsam, the kitchn, and Northern Virginia Magazine. Her first book, Number's Up: Cracking the Code of an American Family (University Press of Kentucky, 2025), is a finalist for the 2026 Tennessee Book Award for Nonfiction. She lives in Nashville.

During this episode, we chatted about her debut book, Numbers Up.

Levi's stirring memoir centers on her brilliant but troubled father, a Black World War II radioman who, facing economic barriers after his naval service, reinvents himself as a "numbers man" for an underground gambling operation. The job enables John Matthews to provide for his loved ones and to achieve a level of success far beyond his childhood dreams in the impoverished Jim Crow South. In the process, he becomes an indirect target of law enforcement.

By examining the circumstances of her father's incarceration, Levi explores how multiple generations of the Matthews family have been haunted by the specter of violence against Black people. Number's Up offers a unique but quintessentially American story of survival through ingenuity as it asks: Is forgiveness the sole means of moving forward?

To learn more about Johnisha and her work, please visit johnishamatthewslevi.com.

Purchase your copy of Numbers Up from our Bookshop.

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A companion podcast to our award-winning series, Black Writers Read, Recasting the Culture highlights the work of BIPOC innovators and other co-conspirators, offering an inside look into the practice and process of writers, musicians, visual artists, curators, community leaders, and educators whose work challenges conventions, re/defines culture, and promotes social transformation.

This episode features my conversation with Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian jazz musician, saxophonist, and composer, Felipe Salles.

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Felipe Salles has been an active musician in the US since 1995. He is a recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim Foundation Composition Fellowship, a 2021 South Arts Jazz Road Creative Residency Grant Fellowship recipient, a 2015 and 2023 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant winner, a 2009-2010 winner of the French American Jazz Exchange Grant, and a 2005-2006 winner of the Chamber Music America New Works: Creation and Presentation Grant Program, grants sponsored by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. He was awarded First Place in the 2001 Concurso SGAE de Jazz "TETE MONTOLIU", 2001, with his composition The Return of The Chromo Sapiens.

Salles has released twelve critically acclaimed recordings as a leader.

His newest recording, Camera Obscura, featuring his quartet, a string quartet and a woodwind sextet, was released on the Tapestry label on June 6, 2025 to critical acclaim. A Deriva (Adrift translated in English), which is featured on A Deriva, is nominated for a 2026 Latin Grammy for Best Arranging.

Felipe Salles has a Master’s and a Graduate Diploma in Jazz Performance from New England Conservatory, and a Doctorate in Jazz Arts Advancement from Manhattan School of Music. He is a Professor of Jazz and African American Music Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he has taught since 2010.

To learn more about Dr. Salles’ expansive body of work, please visit sallesjazz.com.

Watch The New Immigrant Experience on YouTube

Hear the Latin Grammy-nominated song for Best Arranging, A Deriva (Adrift)

Watch "Using Poetry to Inspire Composition" - hear Felipe talk about writing music for A Deriva

Find Felipe Salles on Instagram: @sallesjazz

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This episode features our conversation with Desiree Cooper, which was live-streamed on September 8, 2026.

Desiree Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, former attorney, and editor of the groundbreaking 2026 anthology, Black Summers: Growing up in the Urban Outdoors. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Oprah Daily, MSNBC Daily, Flash Fiction America 2023, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, River Teeth, and noted in The Best American Essays 2019. Cooper is the author of the award-winning flash fiction collection, Know the Mother. Her children’s picture book, Nothing Special, is a 2023 Paterson Prizewinner and one of the New York Public Library’s “10 Best Children’s Books of 2022.”

During this episode, we talked about Black Summers: Growing Up in the Urban Outdoors (Wayne State University Press, 2026), an anthology edited by Desiree Cooper.

Remember frolicking outside during the long, jubilant days of summer? This vibrant collection invites readers to breathe deeply and return to that "carefree" season. From riding bikes with friends through the neighborhood, to hopping the ferry to Boblo Island, catching catfish along the river, dancing on warm nights to Afrobeats and jazz music, and cooling off in the Swimmobile, those sun-drenched memories were often clouded by racism for the Detroiters in this evocative anthology. These emerging and award-winning creators of all ages recount the struggles and triumphs of staking their claim to public spaces. Ranging from poetry to essay, creative nonfiction to comics, this collection blends nostalgia with struggle and resilience. Arising from the iconic city of the African American experience comes this exploration of Black joy in the urban outdoors.

To learn more about Desiree, her work and this anthology, please visit descooper.com.

Check out Desiree's last visit with us to chat about her children's book, Nothing Special.

Find Desiree on IG: @descooper

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Welcome to Season Seven! Check out this trailer to get a sneak peek of the upcoming season.

Black Writers Read showcases, celebrates, and elevates the words, work, and traditions of the African Diaspora. Launched on Juneteenth in 2020, we've hosted over 100 authors representing over 20 genres from six countries and 28 states.

Lucky #7! This season, we're focusing on the work of public intellectuals. As Nicole embarks on her first year as a tenure-track professor at a community college, she has invited colleagues from across higher education from various types of institutions, including Research I, community colleges, and teaching institutions, to talk about books that melt the divide between the Ivory Tower, community activism, legislation, and social change.

On October 17, 2026, National Black Poetry Day, Nicole will be live-streaming two episodes on YouTube that will feature authors who write about Black women's experiences with endometriosis. *In the trailer, Nicole references the date as National Black Reading Day, which is actually February 14.

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Find Nicole on Instagram: @coco_penexplore

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Thanks again for your support and see you on the other side!

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This episode features our conversation with Dr. Rachel Laryea, which was live-streamed on June 26, 2026.

Dr. Rachel Laryea is a thought leader who specializes in race and money, ethical entrepreneurship, and social good. After cutting her teeth on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs, she went on to receive her dual Ph.D. in African American Studies and Sociocultural Anthropology at Yale University. Her ethnographic research aims to understand nuanced forms of Black participation in capitalist economies.

Dr. Rachel is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Research Fellowship award, and she received an honorable mention from the Ford Foundation for her research. She has held Adjunct Professor appointments at NYU Stern Business School, and worked as a racial equity investment strategist and Asset Wealth Management researcher at JPMorgan Chase.

Dr. Rachel is the founder of Kelewele, a lifestyle brand based in Brooklyn, New York, that creates bespoke African travel experiences and vegan, plantain treats. Kelewele has partnered with The James Beard Foundation and Black Entertainment Television (BET), and has been featured in several global publications and media platforms, including The New York Times, Forbes, MarketWatch, and CBS. She is the recipient of the Ghana UK-Based Achievement (GUBA) award.

During this episode, we talked about Dr. Laryea’s book, Black Capitalists: The Blueprint For What Is Possible (Crown Publishing Group, 2025).

To many, the term “Black Capitalists” is oxymoronic. Black people were the labor force that built the infrastructure of American capitalism through the violent enforcement of legalized slavery, so they cannot, and should not, aspire to be the beneficiaries of it. But Wall Street professional and Yale-educated anthropologist Dr. Rachel Laryea poses a provocative question: What if there was a way to thrive within capitalism without diminishing someone else’s life chances through exploitative practices? There is—and Black Capitalists are showing us how. Told through Dr. Laryea's own compelling narrative—growing up the child of a single mother who immigrated to the United States from Ghana and rose to the Ivy League and on Wall Street—with original on-the-ground reporting and rigorous historical analysis, Black Capitalists challenges readers to reconsider who gets to be the beneficiary of capitalism and reckons with the responsibility that comes with using the tools of our imperfect economic system to advance social good.

To learn more about Dr. Laryea and her work, please visit rachelllaryea.com.

Purchase Black Capitalists from our Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9780593735046

Find Dr. Rachel Laryea on Instagram: @drlaryea

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This episode features our conversation with Nikesha Elise Williams, which was live-streamed on June 22, 2026.

Nikesha Elise Williams is a two-time Emmy Award-winning producer, an award-winning author, and the producer and host of the Black and Published podcast. A narrative strategist by day and journalist always, her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Bitter Southerner, Essence, and Vox. Nikesha’s work has been supported by the Kimbilio Fiction Fellowship, the DeGroot Foundation, and the Tin House Summer Workshop. A Chicago native, she lives in Florida with her family.

During this episode, we talked about her latest work, The Seven Daughters of Dupree (Gallery/Scout Press, 2026).

The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women.

Learn more about Nikesha Elise Williams and her work by visiting https://www.newwrites.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

Read the article, "The Spirit of American Beach" by Nikesha Elise Williams for The Bitter Southerner

Watch The Write Reasons interview with Nikesha Elise Williams and her editor, Alison Callahan

Purchase your copy of The Seven Daughters of Dupreee by Nikesha Elise Williams from our Bookshop

Find Nikesha on Instagram: @nikesha_elise

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This episode features our conversation with Jordan Clark, which was live-streamed on May 17, 2026.

Jordan Clark has been writing comics for over a decade, with work most recently being published by Ahoy Comics, DC Comics and past stories at IDW, Image Comics and Dynamite Comics. He was also selected as an inaugural member of the Milestone Initiative at DC Comics, which is geared towards uplifting a new generation of comic creators of color. He believes fiction has the power to imagine a better world and aims to tell stories that allow readers of color to imagine themselves in that better future.

During this episode, we talked about his latest work, Ancestral Recall.

When Melvin’s wife mysteriously disappears, he must call on the most important Black figures of all time to help him in his search. But the futuristic Modern Living Corporation has terrible plans for her. Ancestral Recall is a culturally rich exploration of present-day social commentary and Black History that incorporates multiple genres including historical fiction, Afrofuturism and Science Fiction. Published by AHOY Comics and released on April 14, 2026, Ancestral Recall was illustrated by Atagun Ilhan with color done by Pippa Bowland and letters done by Rob Steen.

Purchase a copy of Ancestral Recall from our Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/114101/9781952090448

Mentioned during the episode:

Check out Jordan's podcast, White People Won't Save You!

Find Jordan on Instagram: @jrsosa18

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Meet a very special person and power behind Black Writers Read, our Associate Producer, Candace DeLeon!

Candace DeLeon is an artist from Detroit based in New York City. She brings her talents and background in theater and administration to The Black Writers Read podcast as Associate Producer.

Candace is an avid reader and has been writing since age 10. She has written plays, poetry, short stories and more. This year she plans to finish her debut novel, a work that's been in the works for a while, and enter the world of querying and publishing.

Find Candace on Instagram: @subjective_adventures

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