RACINE – The 8th Annual “Mary Finley and Marcie Eanes Memorial Black History Month Read-In” will be held Thursday, Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. This year’s read-in will be held virtually, thanks to the collaboration of BONK! Arts and Culture Series, Find the Light LLC and the Racine Public Library. The event will be live-streamed on Facebook Live as well as available through a Zoom webinar. Information, as well as the Zoom link, are found on the home page of the BONK! website.
The “Mary Finley and Marcie Eanes Memorial Black History Month Read-In”
A Black History Month Read-In is an event where community members of all different backgrounds join together to celebrate the vibrant legacy of black contributions to world literature. Fifteen community members will be given 5 minutes each to read a piece (or an excerpt of a piece) of writing written by someone from the black diaspora.
BONK! website
Who were Mary Finley and Marcie Eanes?
Mary Finley and Marcie Eanes were two prominent black women residents of Racine who were inspirations both in the Racine community locally, as well as the literary community nationally–Mary as an ambassador and literary agent and Marcie as a writer herself and supporter of the arts. They have both gone on to join the elders, Mary in 2014 and Marcie in 2015. Shortly before Marcie passed away, she was chosen as one of the finalists for the Racine Poet Laureate position. We are honored to be able to celebrate these two women as leaders of both Racine’s Black Community, as well as Racine’s Literary Community.
BONK! website
The read-in serves as a platform that highlights the myriad contributions of all black people in the world of literature. Because of the volume of contributors, authors are only allowed to be represented one time; no repeats are allowed. This practice has been part of the BHM read-in since its inception in 2016.
About BONK!
BONK! exists to bring healing, justice, equity, joy, connection, and quality of life to the Racine community and beyond, through a variety of educational and community-building initiatives, including a world-class performing arts series. The BONK! series showcases poets, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and all sorts of talent in between. Founded in the fall of 2008, the BONK! series has been running with an event every month for over thirteen years now. BONK! Is made possible by The Racine Public Library, the Racine Community Foundation, the Osborne and Scekic Family Foundation, the Friends of the Racine Public Library, and Olde Madrid restaurant.
Additional Read-in Sponsors
In addition to BONK! and its sponsors, this event was made possible by Racine Women for Racial Justice and Find The Light.
For additional information, visit the BONK! website, contact Alex Reilly at 262-989-2930, or email contact@bonkseries.org.
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