Join award-winning author francesca ekwuyasi for the 2026 Queer History Month Keynote, Knowing—mapping a personal queer and creative history through the lens of Audre Lorde's essay Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power. The keynote lecture will be followed by a dialogue between the author and Amber Rose Johnson, Assistant Professor in the Department of English, McGill Faculty of Arts. This event will take place in English.

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026

Time: 4:30-7:30 PM ET (catered reception 4:30-5:30 / keynote event 5:30-7:30)

Location: Tanna Schulich Hall, located in the Elizabeth Wirth Music Building (527 Sherbrooke Street West) OR livestream option (YouTube link sent with registration)

Accessibility

• This event will provide ASL-English interpretation and live captioning.
• The venue is accessible to wheelchair users.
• Wheelchair accessible and gender-inclusive washrooms are located on the second floor, via both elevator and stairs.
• Please email (shannon.wood@mcgill.ca) with questions or accessibility requirements.

About the Speaker

francesca ekwuyasi is the author of Butter Honey Pig Bread and co-author of Curious Sounds: A Dialogue in Three Movements. She won the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for Emerging LGBTQIA2S+ writers, and has been short and Longlisted for the Lambda Literary Award, the Governor General Award, the Amazon First Novel Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Dublin International Literary Award and others. She lives between Montreal and Halifax. 

About the Discussant

Amber Rose Johnson is a writer, artist, and cultural worker from Providence, Rhode Island (USA). She is an assistant professor in the Department of English at McGill's Faculty of Arts. She holds a M.A., Ph.D., English and Africana Studies (University of Pennsylvania) and was a McGill Third Century Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English. She is a scholar and practitioner dedicated to Black Study and her primary research foci are contemporary experimental poetry and performance.  

Partners

Queer History Month is organized by McGill's Equity Team in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic). The 2026 QHM partner is McGill Libraries, with support from McGill Communications and Institutional Relations. The McGill Equity Team and the McGill Libraries recognize the support of Linda Leith, OC, PhD.