This year's annual family-friendly festival will include a fireside chat and Q&A with 16 year-old author and activist, Yolanda Renee King, the only grandchild of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Her new book We Dream A World is a call for unity and equality and is inspired by Langston Hughes’s seminal poem I Dream A World. Yolanda Renee King is leading a new generation of modern activists. Though Yolanda never met her grandfather, she is galvanizing countless young people to stand up and speak out on a range of issues affecting the world today. She represents and embodies this year’s Fall Fest theme, “Courage”. King will engage in conversation with Anais Briscoe-Beuoy, a local youth leader and poet and Regional Scholastic Writing Award Winner.
In addition to Kings’ talk, local youth will perform their winning entries from this year’s Slammin' Rhymes Challenge, a contest for poets, rappers, and spoken word artists in grades 6-12. The event will also feature performances by the Sirlimitless dance group, Actors Ink Theatre Company, Rightntight Fitness with Ms Sylvia, the Chicago Boyz acrobatic team, and poet Mariah Ivey.
This event is free and open to the public and made possible by The Indianapolis Foundation Library Fund and J. Steve & Donna D. Talley Fund through gifts to The Indianapolis Public Library Foundation.
Kwame Alexander
Maya Angelou
Robb Armstrong
Lerone Bennett
Gwendolyn Brooks
Tony Brown
A’leila Bundles
Tamika Catchings
Shirley Chisholm
Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis
Eric Jerome Dickey
Mari Evans
Kim Fields
Step Stool Chef-Julian Frederick
Sybrina Fulton
Ernest Gaines
Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Nikki Giovanni*
Virginia Hamilton
E. Lynn Harris
James Haskins
Judge Glenda Hatchett
Jeff Henderson
Dr. Lonnie G. Johnson
Etheridge Knight
MC Lyte
Judge Greg Mathis
Nathan McCall
Terry McMillan
Walter Mosley
Kevin Powell
Richardson, Kevin
Rose Rock
Sapphire
Vickie Stringer
Velma Maia Thomas
Omar Tyree
*Two-time Lecturer