This panel centers the throughlines of Black women’s lives—past, present, and future—through the multidisciplinary lenses of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. In the nonfiction realm, Maryemma Graham’s The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker is the first biography of author and activist Margaret Walker. Among the first to recognize the impact of Black women in literature, Graham emphasizes what contemporary American culture owes to her decades of foundational work in what we know today as Black Studies, Women’s Studies, and the Public Humanities. In fiction, inspired by true events, Joshunda Sanders’s debut novel, Women of the Post, focuses on the search for purpose and friendship in the all-Black battalion of the Women’s Army Corps in WWII. Cynthia Manick’s poetry collection, No Sweet Without Brine, touches on everyday life, childhood memories, adult realities, Black love, and Black joy. Voted one of the Best Books of 2023 by the New York Public Library, No Sweet Without Brine uses seamless lyricism to explore the love of self and culture through new observations and bitter truths. This panel is moderated by screenwriter, poet, and educator Shia Shabazz Smith.