The People Say Project with Anne Gisleson and Vera Warren-Williams

Two of the most legitimate ladies of New Orleans community literary projects will take the stage before a live audience on Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. at the Louisiana Humanities Center (LHC) as part of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ The People Say Project. The LHC is at 938 Lafayette St.

Anne Gisleson is the board director of the literary-arts nonprofit and book publisher Press Street, the parent organization of Room 220 and the Antenna Gallery. She teaches creative writing at NOCCA and Tulane. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Oxford American, The Believer, and many other places. Read an interview with Gisleson conducted by Cameron Shaw as part of Pelican Bomb‘s “State of Affairs” interview series.

Vera Warren-Williams is the owner and manager of the Community Book Center, which is an event space and community center besides being New Orleans’ most important black-owned bookstore for nearly 30 years. The Community Book Center is a hub for literary and literacy efforts, such as the 2-Cent Listen! Literacy and Arts Festival and the Stories to Go project. Read a 2009 interview with Warren-Williams conducted by Susan Larson for the Times-Picayune and a 2001 article in The Gambit about black-owned businesses that features the Community Book Center.

Brian Boyles, director of the Louisiana Humanities Center, will moderate the discussion. Boyles, along with NOLA Fugees Press, is the founder of The People Say Project, a series of live conversations that focuses on the intersection of culture and money in New Orleans.