We welcome all 2023 CCCC Annual Convention attendees to join us for these special events during the Convention! Please note that unless otherwise noted, all events will be held in person only.
Thursday, February 16
Newcomers’ Coffee Hour, 7:30–8:15 a.m.
Grand Ballroom Lobby, 2nd Floor
The CCCC Newcomers’ Orientation Committee looks forward to meeting you at the Newcomers’ Coffee Hour, a congenial start to the first full day of activities, where you can begin the kinds of professional conversations that have made this conference one of the high points of the year for each of us.
Opening General Session, 8:30 a.m.–10:15 a.m. (Livestreamed)
Grand Ballroom, 2nd Floor
Footwork through the trauma with Kuumba Lynx and Open Mic, 3:15–4:45 p.m.
Continental C, Lobby Level
Sponsored by the Social Justice at the Convention Committee
The Poetry Event at Cs invites local social justice poets to help us make meaning. This year, we have collaborated with Chicago’s Kuumba Lynx, who will provide a featured performance and then host an open mic for interested Cs attendees to perform creative work from multiple genres.
Footwork through the trauma
A core of creative freedom fighters from Altgeld Gardens call up the ancestors as they attempt to examine the impact of environmental racism. Footwork through the trauma journeys us through a series of vignettes featuring original poetics, stories, and grounding Chicago Juke, House, and Footwork movement. The performance features snippets of a docuseries by Chicago Footworker legend Pause Eddie and features renowned Footworkers from across the city.
Scholars for the Dream Reception, 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Grand Ballroom Lobby, 2nd Floor
Come celebrate and network with the 2023 CCCC Scholars for the Dream recipients!
Anzaldúa Award Reception, 7:00–8:00 p.m.
Continental C, Lobby Level
Come celebrate and network with the 2023 CCCC Gloria Anzaldúa Award recipients!
Cross-Caucus/SIG Engagement Event, 8:00–9:00 p.m.
Continental C, Lobby Level
Sponsored by the Social Justice at the Convention Committee
This social event aims to foster dialogue among identity-based Caucus and Special Interest Group members. All members are invited to attend and participate in pitching collaborative projects to journal editors or just mingle.
Friday, February 17
Special Session: ChatGPT, Magical Thinking, and the Discourse of Crisis, 8:00–9:15 a.m.
International Ballroom North, 2nd Floor
In this roundtable, experts in digital technologies, media, and literacies gather to discuss the rise of ChatGPT, its pedagogical implications, and the crisis-speak within and beyond the academy that attended its launch in the fall of 2022, along with its swift user uptake in the months since. Learn more about the panelists for this timely conversation.
All-Attendee Event, 11:00–12:15 p.m. (Livestreamed)
Grand Ballroom, 2nd Floor
“about to happen”/“poetry as forces”: abolitionist poetics
This year’s keynote features poet, educator, and scholar Stacey Waite (Butch Geography and Teaching Queer) and Andrea Abi-Karam (Villiany (author) and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (co-edited with Kay Gabriel)), a trans, Arab-American punk poet-performer cyborg, workshop facilitator, and activist. Waite and Abi-Karam will each read from their work as well as engage in dialogue with each other and Program Chair Frankie Condon about poetry’s provision of “a way to inhabit revolutionary practice, to ground ourselves in our relations to ourselves and each other, to think about an unevenly miserable world, and to spit in its face” (Abi-Karam and Gabriel). The title of this year’s keynote is drawn from the work of Chilean poet and artist Cecillia Vicūna.
Stacey Waite is associate professor of English and graduate chair at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is the author of four collections of poetry: Choke (winner of the Frank O’Hara Prize for Poetry), Love Poem to Androgyny, the lake has no saint (Winner of the Snowbound Prize for Poetry), and Butch Geography. Waite is also the author of Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing.
Andrea Abi-Karam is a trans, Arab American punk poet-performer cyborg. They are the author of Extratransmission, and with Kay Gabriel, they co-edited We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics. Their second book, Villainy, reimagines militant collectivity in the wake of the Ghost Ship Fire and the Muslim Ban.
Yoga for Black Lives, 12:30–1:30 p.m.
International Ballroom North, 2nd Floor
Sponsored by the Social Justice at the Convention Committee
Get your mind-body connection flowing with this mid-day morning Yoga session with instructors from Yoga for Black Lives, an organization that teaches yoga toward transformative justice and community healing. All levels and all bodies are welcome, including first-timers.
Love & Protect Letter Writing Workshop, 2:00–3:15 p.m.
Lake Ontario, 8th Floor
Sponsored by the Social Justice at the Convention Committee
Join us for a hands-on workshop on the importance of writing letters to people in prison, and particularly, to criminalized survivors of gender-based violence with community activists from Love & Protect. Love & Protect is a grassroots volunteer collective that supports those who identify as BIPOC trans and cis women and GNC people who have been incarcerated or criminalized by the state for defending themselves against interpersonal violence.
Afternoon Mini Qigong/TaiChi & Yoga Session, 3:15–3:30 p.m.
Salon D, Lower Level
Sponsored by the Social Justice at the Convention Committee
As the conference winds down, reconnect mind-body with a mid-afternoon Qigong/TaiChi and Yoga mini-session. All levels and all bodies are welcome, including first-timers.
CCCC Annual Business Meeting, 4:15–6:00 p.m. (Livestreamed)
Grand Ballroom, 2nd Floor
CCCC Awards Presentation, 6:00–7:15 p.m. (Livestreamed)
Grand Ballroom, 2nd Floor
During this presentation we announce the recipients of the 2023 CCCC Awards. Past CCCC Chairs, distinguished guests, and international participants will be recognized. Please take the time to come celebrate with your colleagues.
Performance by The Vixen and Open-Mic Drag Show, 7:15–9:30 p.m.
Grand Ballroom, 2nd Floor
The Vixen is a multitalented performer dedicated to making the world a better place. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, she has always intertwined her art with social justice and activism. An accomplished drag queen, songwriter, fashion designer, and dancer, she credits her creative family for her love of the arts. As a student at Columbia College in Chicago, the Vixen learned the makeup skills it took to create her growing drag persona. After turning 21, she quickly gained attention in the Chicago drag scene for her athletic performance style.
Through hard work and dedication, the Vixen has become an influential member of Chicago’s gay community—interviewed by many publications for her unique style and outspoken viewpoint. As a rapper, her bold lyrics and intricate delivery have earned her national attention for her show-stopping collaborations. Her proudest achievement is creating BlackGirlMagic, a drag concert where queens of color can celebrate their unique experiences through storytelling and performance. The Vixen lives by her grandmother’s belief that helping others makes life worthwhile.
The Vixen’s CCCC 2023 performance will feature dance and spoken word and an open-mic drag show following. So, Queens or Kings, if you want to add your name to the roster for open-mic drag night, please send your name, song, and a list of any props you’ll be using (this is a BYOP performance, by the way) to our MC, Dr. Tommy at tmayberr@ualberta.ca before midnight on January 23, 2023.
Saturday, February 18
Teacher 2 Teacher, 9:30–11:30 a.m.
International Ballroom North, 2nd Floor
Teacher 2 Teacher (T2T) offers CCCC Convention participants a dynamic professional development and networking opportunity. All CCCC 2023 attendees are welcome to join.
