Georgia State Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora to Host 2nd Annual Global Read-a-Thon

ATLANTA — For the second year in a row, the Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora (CSAD) at Georgia State University will mark Black History Month with a livestreamed global read-a-thon to celebrate literature from Africa and the African diaspora.

The event, which will take place Feb. 27, will include partners from The Gambia, Germany and Colombia, as well as participants on the Georgia State University Atlanta Campus and other Atlanta-based universities. The program will be led by Suzanne Malveaux, the award-winning former CNN anchor and White House correspondent. Also headlining the event is Kiese Laymon, a 2022 MacArthur Fellow and the award-winning author of “Heavy: An American Memoir.”

The theme of this year’s event is “CSAD Global Read-a-Thon 2024: The Greatest of All Time (The GOAT).” Each participating country will debate a short list of seminal works and select their greatest book representing Black literature and scholarship from that country.

Edvige Jean-François, executive director of CSAD, said the event is a unique opportunity to bring together students, scholars and readers from across the globe to discuss great books and their personal and cultural impact.

“Books open the imagination,” Jean-François said. “Books expand thinking. Books transport us to places known and unknown and connect us, no matter where we are in the world. What better way to celebrate Black History Month than to celebrate the rich history and stories found in books? Books reveal us to ourselves.”

In Atlanta, the following scholars will debate the books they have nominated as the greatest for the United States:

• Maurice Hobson, associate professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State: “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois.
• Renée Schatteman, associate professor of English at Georgia State: “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.
• Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, co-director of the Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni at Georgia State: “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison.
• Heather I. Scott, assistant dean for Inclusive Leadership Curriculum and Co-Curriculum, Agnes Scott College: “I know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou.
• Corrie Claiborne, associate professor of English, Morehouse College: “Mama Day” by Gloria Naylor.
• Elizabeth West, Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State: “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston.

West, who is also CSAD’s director of academics, notes that the books nominated are “the top of the line of African American literary works.”

“With publication dates ranging from DuBois’ ‘Souls’ in 1903 to Naylor’s ‘Mama Day’ in 1988, The GOAT nominations for this year represent only a brief span in the centuries-old tradition of African American literature,” West said.

A team of Georgia State librarians will decide the two finalists for the greatest book for the United States: Southern Labor Archivist Lisa Vallen, Music and Popular Culture Archivist Brittany Newberry, and CSAD Librarian and Outreach Librarian for the Social Sciences Charlene Martoni. The scholars will all participate in the final vote to select the winner.

The international partners are the U.S. Embassy in Banjul, The Gambia; the Johannes Gutenberg University Obama Institute in Mainz, Germany; and Centro de Estudios Afrodiaspóricos (CEAF), Universidad Icesi-Colombia in Cali, Colombia.

The event will stream live from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST from the university’s Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII), known for its state-of-the-art facilities, including a 1,900-square-foot studio equipped with a 330-inch 4K FusionMAX LED video wall. This technological infrastructure not only enhances the event’s production quality but also fosters a sense of global connectivity, promoting collaboration, knowledge exchange and skill development among student participants.

The livestream will be available on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter).

For more information, including the streaming schedule, go to:  https://csad.gsu.edu/csad-read-a-thon/

The Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora is an academic research center focused on increasing worldwide understanding of people from Africa and the African diaspora and their ongoing contributions to the world. CSAD, which is housed in the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgia State, brings together public- and private-sector scholars, thinkers and innovators with a shared purpose of addressing critical issues affecting Africa and its diaspora, and finding solutions to build a more equitable, just and principled society. To learn more about CSAD, visit csad.gsu.edu.