4th Annual Carrying the Torch: A Reading and Remembrance for the Future

Join Torch Literary Arts for the 4th Annual Carrying the Torch: A Reading and Remembrance for the Future. This special event acknowledges the historical significance of Juneteenth and celebrates the accomplishments of the African American community. Poets, writers, and guest speakers will share original work to acknowledge the federal holiday and celebrate the future of African Americans in Texas.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public. Tickets are required. Space is Limited. 

Date: June 20, 2026

Time: 6 p.m. - The Torch Center at The LINC, 6406 N. I-35 Frontage Rd., Suite 1807, Austin, TX 78762

Food: Mashae's Catering

Photography: Larry Choyce 

Dr. Ashanté M. Reese is an award-winning author, anthropologist, and teacher. Weaving together food justice, geography, and care, she offers stories about the practices that sustain and free us. Her first book, Black Food Geographies: Race, Food Access, and Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C. (UNC Press, 2019), developed a theory of how anti-Blackness constrains urban residents’ choices and how they, then, respond through placed-based efforts to practice self-reliance. Her latest book, Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness (W.W. Norton, 2026), argues for a vision of food justice that centers knowledge and traditions that already exist in Black communities and invites us to embrace them as the foundation of nourishment. She teaches at The University of Texas at Austin.

Best of the Net Nominee Nala Washington is a poet, writer, and educator, completing her MFA at Texas State University. You can find her words currently/forthcoming in Remington Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, Midnight & Indigo Lit, The Hemlock Journal, Mouthful of Salt, The Santa Clara Review, and more. She made the poetry longlist for the 2026 DISQUIET Literary Prize and was the 2023 BIPOC Scholarship winner for FAWC. She currently participates in Austin Poetry Slam and Every Word Poetry in Texas.

Qween Red (feminine archetype name: GreenHeart) is big-hearted energy. She is a kaleidoscope of life. Her first love is poetry because it is what gives language air to breathe and let live. The first book she recalls reading that influenced her imagination is The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah. Her favorite poet of all time is Maya Angelou. She is a poet, author, writer, speaker, creative artist, avid trail walker, heart chef, foodie, and world traveler. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Tampa, Florida, and claims Texas as her home. She self-published her first book of poems, Walk In My Words, Or Ride In My Back Pocket, in  December 2021. She has co-authored several previous book projects. She is the Founder and  Creative Leader of the Lotus Life Program: Blooming From the MUD™. This program guides women creatives out of survival mode and into an abundance lotus lifestyle. She is a wife and mother. She is a proud Army Veteran and retired Senior Cybersecurity Professional. She has a master’s degree in psychology and a bachelor’s degree in information technology management from Keiser University. If you ever catch her saying, “I’ve lived nine different lives”, she means it. 

Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, and the 61st Poet Laureate of Texas. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of two chapbooks, GUAP and Lock & Key, as well as the full-length collection Another Way to Say Enter. She is also the editor of the anthology Praisesong for the People: Poems from the Heart and Soul of Texas. Her work has appeared in numerous online and print publications, among them Callaloo, Poetry Magazine, The Moth Radio Hour, Bill Moyers, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships, grants, and awards from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, Tasajillo, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, The Watermill Center, American Short Fiction, and the Academy of American Poets. She is a former Board President of the Cave Canem Foundation and the founder of Torch Literary Arts.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. Torch has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats. 

This event is made possible with support from the City of Austin, the Burdine Johnson Foundation, the Poetry Foundation, the Austin Community Foundation, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. 

Won't you celebrate with us? 

Please consider donating to support Torch and help fuel our flame for generations to come. 

Celebrate Herstory 

$25.00 - Celebrate the vast contributions of Black women writers throughout history. 

Legacy Circle 

$50.00 - Celebrate the voices of our foremothers, like Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Nikki Giovanni, who paved the way for writers and readers today. 

Features

$75.00 - Celebrate Torch Magazine, publishing and preserving the work of Black women writers. Torch Magazine has featured emerging and established Texas writers, including LaToya Watkins, Lisa B. Thompson, Debora DEEP Mouton, Ebony Stewart, and Andrea Vocab Sanderson.  

Trailblazer

$100.00 - Honor how Torch lights a path for Black women writers to have their voices, stories, and perspectives heard and held here in the U.S. and abroad.