English Alum Ayana Contreras Reads at Western

English department alumna Ayana Contreras (B.A. 2006) returned to campus on Friday, February 25th as a Fred and Lola Austin Case Writer in Residence to read from her new book, Energy Never Dies: Afro-Optimism and Creativity in Chicago (University of Illinois Press 2021).

Ayana met with faculty, shared lunch and dinner with students, read from her book, and talked about her experience of the English major and how she developed her career as a writer, radio producer, DJ, record collector, artist, and archivist.

You can watch this video of Ayana reading from Energy Never Dies and responding to audience questions.

You can watch this interview with Ayana in which she looks back over her time at Western and explains how she developed as a writer, producer, artist, and archivist.