I am extremely proud of what we do in San Antonio to promote literacy and culture among our youth. We take a great deal of pride in the quality of writers living right here in the Alamo City. The weekend of February 26 to 28, we plan to acknowledge our writers at a Black History Literary Weekend Dinner. However, prior to the dinner, eight of our outstanding authors will participate in a number of events to include trips to S. J. Davis Middle School and the George Gervin Academy, where they will meet and talk with young students in grades eight through twelve. These eight authors, who have works of fiction, non fiction and poetry, voluntarily give of their time because they strongly believe that they must encourage our young to dig deep in the far regions of their mind, and nurture the gift of creative writing. They readily acknowledge, that someone in their life served as a role model to encourage them to pursue a dream of becoming a writer. Many times, young children do not get such encouragement in the home, and far too often their talent remains dormant and they never reach the pinnacle of success as writers.

This year’s theme for Black Literary Weekend is, “Literature: The Foundation of all Cultures.” Without the written word, the history is lost and the people become insignificant to the world and subject to elimination. A people’s history is recorded in many different genres to include, novels, autobiographies, biographies, essays, dissertations, poetry and the list goes on. The key is that it all begins when young adults have the courage to pick up a pen and write that first sentence. That often is the most difficult task because our young may have been discouraged by family members, peer groups or many other people who pass through their lives. This weekend our authors will dispel those doubts and hopefully, from out of the young people they meet and greet, will come the next Pulitzer Prize writer.

This year’s speaker at the dinner is an outstanding leader within the artistic and literary circles who has, over the years, served as a magnificent beam of creative light illuminating on our community. Aaronetta Pierce is not only a collector of art but also a writer who has recently produced two outstanding works, one on Maya Angelou who was Ms. Pierce’s very close friend, and the other an essay written to her grandchildren about their heritage. Both pieces will appear in an anthology to be released in March 2015, titled, Black is the Color of Strength. It will be one of many outstanding books featured at the San Antonio Book Festival in April 2015.

One of our primary goals for the dinner this year is to raise enough money to help support our effort to establish the Dr. David Floyd Writing Project as a 501c3 foundation. David is a brother whose life story I wrote a few years ago. It is a fascinating story. He graduated from high school reading at the second grade level, and last June received his Doctorate Degree in Accounting. Unfortunately, we lost David in October of 2014 to cancer. David and I had just begun to talk about a sequel to his story, encouraging young black boys not to fear life or run away from its challenges. We now plan to make him a symbol of struggle, dedication and success. If you are in the San Antonio area and would like to attend this dinner, you can contact Ms. Antoinette Franklin at (210) 264-1518 or Mr. D. L. Grant at (210) 207-9180, or just email me at fredwilliams@satx.rr.com.