Conway, Ark.—The Hendrix-Murphy Foundation will host Caroline Randall Williams as a Murphy Visiting Writer on Wednesday, February 19, at 7:30 p.m. in Reves Recital Hall at Hendrix College. She will read and discuss her multi-genre work as an award-winning poet, young adult novelist, and cookbook author as well as an activist, public intellectual, performance artist, and scholar.
A reception and book signing in Trieschmann Gallery will follow the reading. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are required.
According to Hope Coulter, director of the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation, Williams' work engages student interest in a number of ways. "Her writing asks difficult but necessary questions about race, gender, sexuality, history, and culture. It prompts the reader to think critically about the past, both personal and public."
Great-granddaughter of Harlem Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps and daughter of author Alice Randall, Randall Williams is a multi-threat creative who proves that the best conversations really do happen at intersections of many kinds of art.
Hosting a new television series Hungry for Answers with Academy award winner Viola Davis executive producing for Discovery Plus, which explores the stories behind Black food in American culture, writing the New York Times Opinion piece “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body is a Confederate Monument,” co-authoring the NAACP Image Award-winning cookbook “Soul Food Love,” appearing on Morning Joe, Dr. Oz and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell and debuting her first poetry collection Lucy Negro, Redux which was adapted into a ballet by Nashville Ballet, with an original score by Grammy award winner Rhiannon Giddens—with this variety of work across genres it's fitting that Randall Williams was named by Southern Living as one of the "50 People Changing the South" and ranked by The Root as one of the 100 most influential African Americans of 2020.
“A poet, a novelist, a public speaker, an educator, a chef, a scholar, a performance artist, and an activist, Caroline Randall Williams is a Swiss Army Knife of talents. What's even more impressive is that she is exceptional at every one of them. I'm most excited for our students to observe during Williams' visit to Hendrix College how they can pursue their multiple passions and vocations in expansive and more fulfilling ways. This event is going to be a feast for everyone," said Assistant Professor of English Dr. Samyak Shertok.
Randall Williams is currently serving as a Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University's Medicine, Health, and Society Department. She completed her undergraduate studies in English at Harvard University and received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Mississippi.
The Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language were founded in 1978 by a gift from Charles H. Murphy, Jr., former CEO of Murphy Oil Corporation, in memory of his mother Bertie Wilson Murphy. Their mission is to enhance and enrich the study of literature and language at Hendrix College. For more information, visit hendrixmurphy.org.
To learn more about Caroline Randall Williams’ work and the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation, visit hendrixmurphy.org/randall-williams.