City of Asylum celebrates the release of Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices edited by author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. Fresh and electrifying, Relations features stories, poems, and essays by African and diaspora writers.

In Relations, both new and established storytellers reshape the narratives that divide and subjugate, revealing the truth of our shared humanity despite differences in language, identity, class, gender, and beyond. The anthology is a collection of genre-spanning literature that embraces the diversity of Blackness, invites connections across real and imagined borders, and celebrates the most profound relations.

This program features a reading by Nana, a conversation moderated by Pittsburgh-based cultural leader Demeatria Boccella, an audience Q&A, and a book signing. You can purchase your own copy of Nana’s book, Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices, at City of Asylum Bookstore.

“Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, the editor of this new anthology called Relations, will lead us on a journey across genres with storytelling exploring and celebrating the diversity of Blackness. My favorite part of this anthology was being introduced to both new and established storytellers, and I’m eager to learn about Nana’s experience curating this collection of stories from African and diaspora perspectives.” - Kelsey Ford, Director of Programs

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is the editor of Relations: An Anthology of African and Diaspora Voices. She is the author of the children’s picture book Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky, illustrated by Caldecott Honor Artist Daniel Minter, and the young adult novel Powder Necklace, which Publishers Weekly called “a winning debut.” Her short fiction for adult readers is included in the anthologies Accra Noir, edited by Nana-Ama Danquah; Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of the Sahara, edited by Ellah Wakatama Allfrey; New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby; Everyday People: The Color of Life, edited by Jennifer Baker; and Woman’s Work, edited by Michelle Sewell, among others. Forthcoming from Brew-Hammond are a novel and children’s picture book.

Brew-Hammond was a 2019 Edward F. Albee Foundation fellow, a 2018 Aké Arts and Book Festival guest author, a 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, a 2016 Hedgebrook writer in residence, and a 2015 Rhode Island Writers Colony writer in residence. Every month, Brew-Hammond co-leads a writing fellowship whose mission is to write light into darkness. Follow her: @nanaekuawriter (FB and IG), @nanaekua (Twitter).

As president and CEO of Demeatria Boccella Productions, LLC, Demeatria Boccella supports creative excellence by pursuing fresh ideas and programmatic innovation through her signature productions. She instigates, commissions, convenes, and otherwise seeks to build communities at the intersection of arts conceptualization, funding, management, performance, and education.

As founder of FashionAFRICANA, Demeatria is focused on broadening the standard of beauty and cultivating a more life-giving and globally aware approach to African-inspired fashion and culture. She provides the artistic vision for FashionAFRICANA, a global multi-media program and educational platform that explores Black beauty, culture, and history through fashion and art. Her most recent projects include the production of the exhibitsMURINZI by Cedric Mizero at The Frick Pittsburgh and  Heroes & Sheroes: The Art and Influence of Ruth E. Carter on Black Cinema at the Heinz History Center. She also curated theCostumes of the Wiz Live exhibition celebrating the work of Tony Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell. Demeatria shared her work as a cultural leader at the 28th Annual Dynamic Women in Business Conference at Harvard University in 2019.

Reading Series: Perspectives from African and Diaspora Storytellers with Author Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond