Books

Tacky:Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King After a recent deep dive into all things Chuck Klosterman, the American essayist who focuses on popular culture, I became unsure if it was his constant mansplaining or my partner’s sudden crack-like addiction to his books that suddenly turned me off. Luckily for me, I have many pals who consume books at an ungodly rate and are always willing to give suggestions, so I found myself with a copy of Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer by Rax King. King is the …

Jacksonville natives Deesha Philyaw, Dawnie Walton and Dantiel W. Moniz shake up the book world with works anchored in the experiences of Black womanhood.  “Do not set us up like this is some anomaly that happened,” Deesha Philyaw demands. Philyaw, the multiple award-winning author of the short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies is adamant that she, along with authors Dawnie Walton and Dantiel W. Moniz are all (to borrow from Cardi B) “regular, schmegular, degular” born and bred Black women from Duval County who happen to be living their dreams in a major way.    Philyaw’s 2020 …

It’s thought-provoking and inspiring, emotional and raw, connecting us all through the power of the written word. In celebration of National Poetry Month, Hope at Hand presents the 4th Annual Jax Poetry Fest with free community workshops and presentations by a collection of local poets, writers and spoken-word artists in . Jax Poetry Fest is an annual event produced by the North Florida nonprofit every April during National Poetry Month to inspire community-based poetry projects and engage the community. The inaugural Poetry Fest was held in 2016. Now in its fourth year, the festival has grown in terms of both …

Art and skateboarding will collide at Color Me Kona, the world’s largest coloring book party and collaboration with Kona Skatepark and the Jax Kid’s Mural Project. The event will be held from 10am to 5pm, November 18th, at the skate park, located at 8739 Kona Avenue. The event is a fundraiser for the project, which serves Title 1 schools and children in underprivileged areas of the community. The event will feature a sidewalk chalk takeover of the park’s freestyle section, where participants can work alongside local and regional chalk artists, in addition to interactive mural painting for all ages. Murals …

For those who haven’t heard, is a daylong celebration of Jacksonville’s literary community. Participating local writers will share their work at more than a dozen venues citywide. “It’s about introducing Jacksonville to Jacksonville. It’s about bringing together the city’s writers of every kind into one stage, that stage being the streets and shops of the city itself.” The descriptor is courtesy of , the founder of the event and author who has penned volumes on the characters and stories that shaped the city’s history. JaxbyJax is held Nov 18 at such participating venues as Il Desco, Beer:30, Cool Moose Coffee …

When she first conceived the idea for the Kesha exhibit, Arts and Culture Developer, Shawana Brooks recalls asking herself, “What would it take to showcase artists that lived here in Jacksonville and resource their abilities back to the community? What would it take to execute creative and collaborative art exhibitions that had a strong position on learning in all dimensions?” Through her curation of 14 black female artists, Brooks developed Kesha as a representation of the black female experience attached to one female name. She strives to explore society’s consistent erasure of the black female through “high quality contemporary work …