Who We Are
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Lead Organizer: Samiya Bashir
Bringing over 20 years of experience as a writer, artist, community leader, and organizer — including as founding organizer of Fire & Ink — Samiya Bashir answers the call to leadership once more to serve as lead organizer for Fire & Inkwell. We can think of no one better to reignite our movement than this seasoned artist, organizer, and leader.
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Advisory Committee
Fire & Inkwell has been building an Advisory Committee of artists and writers in our community who have generously offered their leadership and expertise to the rebuilding and re-ignition of this movement. As we grow to be as inclusive as possible across genre and medium, we will continue to build our leadership, our communities, our advocacy, and our support.
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Historic Organizers + Participants
Fire & Ink was the first ever gathering specifically for LGBTQ+ writers of African descent. Fire & Ink brought together writers, thinkers, readers, teachers, and publishing and media professionals to discuss the position and importance of African diasporic LGBTQ+ literature while developing avenues to advocate for the work and its makers.
Restoring Fire & Inkwell (Formerly Fire & Ink, Inc.) is critical at this moment because Black LGBTQ+ artists and writers remain in the very particular crosshairs of intersecting communities on the margins, each fighting ongoing attacks on Black, queer, and trans books, arts, performance, and cultural programming.
Our new organizational name connects the organization with its history, symbolizing an even deeper commitment to organizational growth and community advocacy and support.
Books by and about LGBTQ and Black people remain the top books being banned in challenges across the country.
Preservation is key. What Fire & Ink built, upon which Fire & Inkwell is building, is uniquely and historically important. It must be preserved, expanded upon, and made available to new generations.
Fire & Inkwell understands the importance of collecting, reflecting, and creating our literary histories while working to build into the future.
Fire & Inkwell is committed to establishing, connecting, and building comprehensive archives of Black LGBTQ+ arts and literatures, laying the groundwork for the study and creation of all of the new work to come.
