Brent Hayes Edwards’s book The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (2003) revisits Black transnational culture in the 1920s and 30s, paying particular attention to links between intellectuals in New York and their Francophone counterparts in Paris. Edwards suggests that diaspora is less a historical condition than a set of practices: the claims, correspondences, and collaborations through which Black intellectuals pursue a variety of international alliances. Edwards elucidates the workings of diaspora by tracking the wealth of Black transnational print culture between the World Wars, exploring the connections and exchanges among New York–based publications and newspapers in Paris. In reading a remarkably diverse archive, The Practice of Diaspora accounts for the highly divergent ways of imagining race beyond the barriers of nation and language.

Edwards’ keynote offers a reflection on the dynamics and implications of the Nardal salon, focusing on the ways it functioned as a space of diasporic encounter and cross-cultural translation. In an effort to reflect on contemporary ways of salooning that must constantly deal with the question of race and class, Edwards is joined in conversation by academics, researchers, and community organizers Maisha-Maureen Auma and Sónia Vaz Borges. The conversation is hosted by HKW editor and curator for Publication Practices, Eric Otieno Sumba.