Seventh Annual LIT Fest Puts Black Women Writers In Focus

Dr. Brandon Hutchinson with Professors Siobhan Carter-David and Joel Dodson.Samir Iydroose Photos. 

“I mean I love us loving us. / I mean I love loving us. / I mean I love the love that is us,” said Dr. Brandon Hutchinson, reading the final stanza of Renée Watson’s “When I Say I Love Us” at the opening of the annual Kulturally LITFest. Her soft voice echoed throughout the lecture hall. Gentle clapping rose around her as soon as she had finished.

Hutchinson, a professor of English and the co-chair of the Africana studies minor at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), grounded the audience at the seventh annual Kulturally LIT Fest, held Saturday in SCSU’s Engelmann Hall. True to Hutchinson’s reading — poetry is not often used as a formal introduction — the day broke out of any traditional mold, celebrating the breadth of a diaspora through the lens of its extraordinary women writers.

Kulturally LIT, founded in 2019 by IfeMichelle Gardin, has a mission of “elevating the literary traditions of the African Diaspora and promoting literacy in the community,” according to the nonprofit’s website.

The festival featured poetry performances from Ink Theory, New Haven’s youth slam team and the recent first-place winner at Brave New Voices; several panels; vendors; and the announcement of New Haven’s second annual Youth Poet Laureate, Shawn Douglas.

Anna Capelle, who was named youth poet laureate by the Yale Literary Magazine and The Word, held the position from 2024 to 2025 (the city had not yet come on board as an institutional partner). Douglas, who was a finalist for the title last year, succeeds inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Henry Mead.

Moderator and LIT Fest Co-Conspirator Babz Rawls-Ivy and author Ainissa Ramirez. 

In the panel “Hidden Figures: Presence of Black Women in STEM,” self-described “science evangelist” Dr. Ainissa Ramirez, author of The Alchemy of Us and the children’s book SPARK, chatted with moderator Babz Rawls-Ivy. Ramirez's next book, There's The Rub: The Hidden World of Friction, comes out this fall and has already garnered multiple starred reviews.

The pair talked about Ramirez’s journey to material sciences as a field, science writing, science communication for children; the importance of stories in science education, her struggles as a “girl” in STEM; and the shortcomings of science education, as science classes are made to “make future scientists” rather than just doing science.

“Adults think they know something,” said Ramirez of her choice to write for children. “If an adult asks you something, you can throw out a big word like ‘oh distillation’ but a kid would ask ‘well what does that mean?’ With kids, you have to get to the essence of that definition for the uninitiated.”

The panel was Ramirez’s first experience in a panel setting, but she said she was not nervous because it was a “very welcoming environment.” Rawls-Ivy said that she moderated panels before, and her favorite question to ask was about what made Ramirez know that she wanted to pursue material science.

Ramirez said that she was a child who asked a lot of questions, and wanted to do something in science. But the life sciences did not appeal to her. “Bro no, I don’t like yucky stuff,” she said, and the audience laughed in response. While electrical engineering was her original path, it turned out to be boring and unengaging. After taking her first material sciences class, she was hooked, and has continued working in the discipline ever since.

In an interview after the panel, Ramirez said her favorite question she answered was when Rawls-Ivy asked her about what parents can do to instill a greater sense of curiosity. She answered Rawls-Ivy’s question with an anecdote about how Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi’s family members asked him “not ‘what did you learn at school today?’ but ‘What questions did you ask?’”

Later in the day, Gardin alongside New Haven Poet Laureate Yexandra “Yex” Diaz and Cultural Affairs Director Shamain “Sha” Mcallister announced the new Youth Poet Laureate for the City of New Haven. Diaz said that when it came down to two finalists, Rosa and Douglas, it was a really hard choice. Douglas ultimately rose to the challenge. 

Douglas said that this is the second time he applied for the position, and he said he has grown a lot in the intervening year. ”

“This is my second year trying on for the position, and the ‘loss,’ and not winning fueled me to want to get better and winning made me feel like I deserved all those hours spent overthinking and that I deserve the poetry,” he said. “My resume sucked [when I applied the first time], but now I'm better at professionally explaining what I do and my poetry ability, like I've just been around so many amazing poets they've come around into a Melting Pot that is my ‘ style.’”

“It was pretty dope to be surrounded by cool literary lovers,” Douglas concluded. “Everyone can tap into poetry if they can tap into themselves. And it’s lucrative.”

Like Douglas, Hutchinson also pointed to the immersive and reflective experience of the festival, saying she wanted to ground the audience and “set the tone” for the event with a poem. Those comments came at the beginning of the day; Douglas’ were closer to the end.

“I wanted to highlight our accomplishments,” she said. “Not what the world recognizes us for but who we are as people, on the inside. It's a chance to pause, slow down and reflect on who we are as Black people.”

She said that choosing the poem was “intuitive” and she plans to teach it in a capstone class in the spring. She added that she was a little nervous, as poetry is not usually used as a formal introduction, but she wanted to “step out of the tradition.”

Samir Iydroose is a graduate of the 2026 Youth Arts Journalism Initiative and a junior at Hamden High School.