Author Visit: Nikkya Hargrove '05

Join us at Stevenson Library for a conversation and reading with Nikkya Hargrove '05 about her 2024 memoir, Mama: A Queer, Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found.

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Bios:

Nikkya Hargrove has written about adoption, marriage, motherhood, and the prison system for The Washington Post, the Guardian, the New York Times, Scary Mommy, and Shondaland. Nikkya has worked for social impact nonprofits providing support to underserved communities throughout her professional career and is currently the the Editor-in-Chief of the Stratford Crier, a local, digital newspaper, and the Executive Director of Stratford Forward, focused on community building. In 2024, she opened Connecticut’s only queer, Black woman-owned independent bookstore. Her book, Mama: A Queer, Black Woman's Story of a Family Lost and Found, was a 2025 Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Memoir/Biography, and winner of the 2025 Memoir Magazine Prize in the LGBTQ+, Family, Resilience Category.

Miguel A. Castillo Jr. attended Bard College in 2001 and is a graduate of the NYU Creative Writing Program, where he earned his MFA. He is currently enrolled at Manhattanville University, pursuing a second MFA in Screenwriting. Castillo is a writer, boxing coach, and memoirist whose work explores identity, power, responsibility, and the tension between violence and care. He hosts Live with Miguel Castillo on Substack, a long-form interview series featuring writers, artists, and thinkers in conversation. His writing has appeared in literary journals and on Substack, and he is currently at work on a memoir and several screen projects.

For more information, call 845-758-6822, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Stevenson Library

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