The Mosaic Literary Conference fosters a collaborative space for individuals interested in literature, education, and the arts. Free Event.
This year’s event will explore how narratives of Black joy can serve as both resistance and renewal, expanding conversations around identity, creativity, and liberation while inviting writers, artists, and thinkers to engage joy as a critical force in shaping literary and cultural futures.
Friday, November 20, 2026: 6–8 PM
Saturday, November 21, 2026: noon–7 PM
Location: DREAM Charter School Mott Haven, 20 Bruckner Boulevard, The Bronx
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20
5:30 PM: Doors open and community gathering
6:00 PM: Workshop • Inheritance as a Verb: Joy, Memory, and Ancestral Healing
• Veronica AgardA reflective and creative workshop exploring how we receive and pass down joy through ancestral healing practices, oral history, and writing. Participants will consider themselves as future ancestors and explore how joy, love, and memory can become heirlooms for future generations.
7:00 PM: Workshop • A Piece of Joy
• Kleaver Cruz
You ever wish you could make a good feeling small enough it could fit in your pocket or somewhere close to you wherever you are? This workshop is intended for you to create a “piece of joy” that is tied to a short phrase to bring you some relief whenever you need it. No materials needed ahead of time, but feel free to bring a small item you love to enhance the experience!
7:45 PM: Closing and community time
8:00 PM: Event ends
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21
Host: Tio
Noon: Workshop • How to Like Your Friend Again!: Navigating Non-Linear Friendships
• Soil Sistas: Seyhandra Benjamin and Folake Aina
Friendships change, and finding our way back takes care. Join Soil Sistas, Seyhandra Benjamin and Folake Aina, to explore repairing harm when both people want to rebuild. Drawing on their friendship and research-backed strategies, they’ll examine accountability, conflict, authenticity, and trust. Participants will reflect on what it means to move forward together and leave with practical tools for navigating relationships in book clubs, workplaces, homes, and communities, making room for change, connection, and renewed joy.
Noon–3:00 PM: Complimentary Portrait Activation with LR2 Studio
1:00 PM: Workshop • Making the Mundane Sacred: Black Joy, Movement & the Stories Our Bodies Carry
• Sabrina Frómeta
Our bodies carry stories. Join Sabrina Frómeta for a movement and storytelling workshop rooted in African and Afro-Caribbean traditions of gathering, remembering, and making joy. Through music, improvisation, and play, everyday gestures become opportunities to explore memory and connection. A grandmother’s movement, a kitchen dance, or a familiar greeting can open a story. No dance experience is needed. Participants will leave with practices for bringing movement, creativity, and shared joy into their communities and lives.
2:00 PM: Panel • Addressing Quiet Loneliness: The Critical Key to Unlocking Joy
• Moderator: T. Francis
• Panelists: Donna Marie, Dalaeja Foreman, Candace Johnson, Tanya D. JonesHow do we move from quiet loneliness toward connection and communal joy? Moderated by T. Francis, this panel brings together perspectives on storytelling, relationship wellness, emotional intelligence, and embodied practice. Tanya D. Jones, Candace Johnson, Donna Marie, and Dalaeja Foreman will explore how we build trust, welcome vulnerability, and create meaningful relationships. Participants will consider how shared experiences and everyday practices of care can strengthen belonging across different spaces and stages of our individual lives.
4:00 PM: Panel • In Honor of June Jordan & Other Black Literary Ancestors
• Moderator: Trace DePass
• Panelists: Ehime Ora, Laney Jade, X Olamina, The UnGrateful Black Artist (UGBA), Marcus StokesWhat can our literary ancestors teach us about the present? Led by Trace DePass, this panel draws on June Jordan’s unpublished teaching journals to explore the connections between writing, education, and community. Writers will honor Black literary ancestors and reflect on Jordan’s classroom experiences, her students’ responses to political upheaval, and the questions that remain with us today. Together, they’ll consider how inherited words and creative practices continue to shape our lives, work, and imagination.
5:00 PM: Panel • Black Men Read: Turning the Page on Joy
• Moderator: Matteo J.
• Panelists: Leslie Buttaflysoul Taylor, Anthony “Da Kidd P.G.” Bagle, Clarence A. Haynes
6:00 PM: The Black Joy Project: A Conversation with Kleaver Cruz
• Moderated by Branden JaneseAn intimate keynote conversation between writer, educator, and activist Kleaver Cruz and conference organizer Branden Janese that will explore the inspiration behind this work and Cruz’s philosophy of Black Joy.
7:00 PM: Conference closing
