Author's Reading | dr. reelaviolette botts-ward (UC San Francisco) | mourning my inner[blackgirl\child (2021) | June 17, 2025

dr. reelaviolette botts-ward is a professor and research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Medicine, where she brings Black feminist healing and arts to healthcare spaces. She is also the founder of blackwomxnhealing—an intergenerational wellness collective—the author of mourning my inner[blackgirl]child (2021), and has served as a poet-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Across all her work, she centers art, spirituality, and healing on behalf of her ancestors and foremothers.

In her visit to TU Dresden she will read from her book of poetry and learning mourning my inner[blackgirl]child (2021)—an intimate journey through embodied memory, complicated selves and times, and intergenerational healing. Her work was featured in our 2024 Introduction to Literary Studies course and we are all the more excited to now be able to welcome her to TU Dresden in person. 

Hosted by the Juniorprofessorship of North American Literature and Future Studies in collaboration with the North American Studies Colloquium, this session is open to all students and colleagues.