What happens when visionary worldbuilding meets movement building? In this rare and unmissable conversation, acclaimed novelist Nnedi Okorafor, whose Africanfuturist fiction reshapes the boundaries of speculative literature, sits down with legendary organizer Marshall Ganz, architect of modern grassroots leadership models. Guided by writer, educator, and visionary thinker Walidah Imarisha, the conversation will travel across story and structure, imagination and power. Together, they will ask: How do the stories we tell determine the futures we fight for? How does organizing become a living narrative of hope and resistance? And how can collective imagination move us closer to liberation? This will be a gathering of minds that reminds us that crafting worlds and building movements are acts born of the same radical impulse: to dream together, and remake what has been made.

Introductory live music performance by Bushwick Book Club Oakland

What is it like to work on early chapter book series? The award-winning writers and illustrator on this panel are here to tell us more! Donna Barba Higuera will introduce Don’t Eat the Birthday Boy!, the second book in her Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy series, which takes place at Ramón’s monster-filled birthday party. The author of the thirteenth book in The Kids in Mrs. Z’s Class series, Mike Jung introduces Theo Chang, who must find a way to befriend his family’s newly adopted cat before they give up and take him back to the shelter in Theo Chang Is Not a Cat. Twirling in with another feline friend who wreaks havoc, The Princess in Black and its illustrator LeUyen Pham are back with The Princess in Black and the Kitty Catastrophe to share what it’s like to illustrate a series that has been in publication for over ten years. The fun never stops with the early chapter book series in this marvelous panel, moderated by Supervising Librarian Librarian Shani B!

From war-torn Sudan to the halls of elite prep schools, from a ship bound for uncertain shores to the pages of a hidden diary, the stories and poems featured in I Am the Moment refuse to look away from hard truths. Ten visionary young female authors of color tackle family dysfunction, religious trauma, displacement, the particular loneliness of being “the only one,” and more. Come hear from these brilliant young authors who remind us that hope isn’t about denying the darkness—it’s about lighting a candle to lead the way through.

I Am the Moment is the fourth anthology from Cinnamongirl Inc., a leadership development organization dedicated to empowering girls of color ages 8-18 to become visionary leaders. In a literary landscape where only 5-7% of published authors are Black, Cinnamongirl’s writing program creates spaces where young writers don’t just find their voices—they claim them.

Breakfast? NO! Sharing? NO! Clean diaper? NO! How do kids with big feelings tell adults what they want? The Baby Who Only Said No! by Sandra Salsbury is a hilarious picture book that will have parents and older siblings laughing along together as they try to get their own ferocious little one to say anything but NO!Eunice and Sabrina Moyle’s My Box of Feelings, a bright and colorful collection of six original mini board books all about feelings, will come in handy for any young one learning to identify, describe, and regulate their emotions. Anger, happiness, calm… what about love? Kati Douglas’ How We Love, a board book full of stellar photography and LGBTQA+ representation of real families and friends, shows love in action through sharing, hugging, showing kindness, demonstrating bravery, and stepping in to help their families and communities. Celebrate the joys and challenges of toddlerhood and independence at this funny and charming read-aloud, emceed by Cinnamongirl!

The Center for ArtEsteem (ArtEsteem) presents “Unleashing the Super Hero Within,” a panel exploring Executive Director Amana Harris’s curriculum Self As Super Hero: Handbook on Creating the Life-Size Self-Portrait.ArtEsteem students and teachers will engage in dialogue about today’s youth, their creative needs, and the Self As Super Hero curriculum as a critical catalyst of self-reflection, family and cultural research, societal assessment, and artistic development.

ArtEsteem is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, founded in 1989 to provide opportunities for personal wellness and creative expression in the Bay Area. Its core programs include academic day, after school, and summer arts education for K-12 students, community engagement through the traveling ArtMobile, public art projects, and professional development for educators.

The Self As Super Hero curriculum is a foundational aspect of ArtEsteem’s work, centering the student artist as they reinvent themselves to be the Super Hero they want to see in their communities. Students identify issues, both personal and in the world, and develop super powers based on their talents, the five senses, and objects of importance that can directly solve the problems they have identified. The 12 Principles of Attitudinal Healing are at core of this curriculum. Attitudinal Healing is a method for healing that helps individuals transform fears into experiences of self reflection for inner healing, and ArtEsteem encourages students to apply the Principles within their daily lives and artistic practice.

Big dogs, small dogs, happy dogs, scrappy dogs—let’s draw them all! Bethanie Murguia, author and illustrator of the graphic novel Wagnificent: A New Dog in the Den, will lead a fun and welcoming drawing workshop for all ages. Participants will leave with their own dynamic and charming dog characters.

In a time when our stories—and our futures—face increasing attempts at erasure, Chismes Con Safos: Speculative Storytelling as Collective Resistance invites participants into a vibrant creative space where community-rooted narratives become tools for liberation. Guided by Rosanna Alvarez—Chicana writer, scholar-artist, and founder of Ocote Libre Press—this workshop blends culturally grounded storytelling practices with speculative worldbuilding.

Participants will explore how personal memory, cultural knowledge, and everyday conversations—our chismes, our cuentos, our testimonios—hold the seeds of radical imagination. Through guided prompts, reflective writing, and gentle community dialogue, attendees will practice transforming lived experience into visionary narratives that challenge authoritarianism and reimagine what justice, belonging, and liberation could look like in the futures we are actively shaping together.

Being a writer can be very isolating. You spend hours alone in a room with a bunch of imaginary people, and it’s next to impossible to explain to anybody who isn’t a writer, exactly what you’re doing there.

That’s why having a writing community is so important.

We’ve invited representatives from six Bay Area writing communities—the Writers Grotto, the Ruby, Left Margin Lit, Decentered Arts, SF Writers Workshop, and Page Street—to come and talk about their organizations, and explain how you can become a member.

We’ll also talk about how to create your own writing community, whether online or in-person.

And of course, leave time for questions.