A Refusal to Hate: Writing and Black Wellness

In this talk, Dr. Umezurike recounts his experiences as a former graduate student, highlighting the role creative writing has played in helping him deal with instances of anti-Blackness and microaggressions on campus and the relationship between writing and wellness. He emphasizes the need for racial minorities to find creative, self-affirming ways to fight off – at the personal and micro levels – the hate that drives everyday racism and the racism that spawns (self) hate.

Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike holds a PhD in English from the University of Alberta, Canada, and is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. Umezurike has published his critical writing in Men and Masculinities, NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, Journal of African Cultural Studies, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, and Postcolonial Text. He is the author of Wish Maker (Masobe Books, 2021) and Double Wahala, Double Trouble (Griots Lounge Publishing, 2021), and a co-editor of Wreaths for Wayfarers, an anthology of poems (Daraja Press, 2020).