Literary Arts
EVENT DATE
LOCATION
355 West Monticello St.
Brookhaven, Mississippi
DETAILS
As a historian, journalist, cultural critic, author, producer, editor and more, Ronda Racha Penrice has been on the pulse of Black entertainment, lifestyle, and culture for over 25 years. In her roles as contributing editor for The Quarterly Black Review of Books, associate editor at Rap Pages and Upscale magazines and deputy editor at Uptown Magazine, the Columbia University alum (who attended M.A. programs at both NYU and the University of Mississippi) has been a pivotal force in shaping editorial content across broad Black audience demographics for two decades. The other 75+ outlets her writing has also appeared include Billboard.com, EBONY, ESSENCE, The Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap, RollingStone, theGrio, The Root, OkayAfrica, Atlanta Magazine, Black Enterprise, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Grammy.com and NBC BLK. She’s penned several cover stories for EBONY, Upscale, Rolling Out and Uptown, among others.As an awards scriptwriter, she’s penned The AAFCA Awards, AAFCA TV Honors, the Salute Her Awards and the Salute Them Awards, for which she received a Telly Award. She’s also customized copy for the Living Legends Foundation Awards honorees. Behind the camera, she’s received several producing credits, including associate producer for both HBO First Look: All Eyez on Me and Hulu’s Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told (for which she was also a researcher and on-camera expert).
The Black American History For Dummies author and Cracking The Wire During Black Lives Matter editor has also appeared on TV One, CNN, and MSNBC as a Black culture expert. A champion of diversity in film and TV, the Chicago native (with deep Mississippi roots) and longtime Atlanta resident is a veteran Black Women Film Network (BWFN) board member. Previously she worked with the Black Hollywood Education and Research Center (BHERC) and the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA).