Community Reading & Feedback Session: Sankofa and Second Chances

Be part of the creative journey! Join local author Reagan Jackson and a talented cast of local young people—directed by Intiman Theatre’s Wesley Frugé—for a live staged reading of Sankofa and Second Chances (working title).

Supported by a grant from 4Culture, Reagan is gathering the local community to help refine this Seattle-based novel. This is a public reading before final edits are locked in. Your voice, thoughts, and feedback will directly help shape the final book.

About the Book: When 17-year-old Brixton Hall flees a violent fallout in Chicago and lands in Seattle’s Central District, he carries nothing but rage and a desire to leave. But the neighborhood his mother once called home—now deeply altered by gentrification—has other plans for him.  Enter Cori Williams, a teen who knows every corner of the Central District and the ancient stories of the Orishas.

When her best friend Skyla begins having vivid, impossible dreams while their other friend Faruq and his family face foreclosure and displacement, Cori realizes it is time to call on powers older than time itself.  Pulled into "the Dreaming"—a spiritual realm where the past bleeds into the present—four local teens witness the layered history of their neighborhood: the legacy of Freedom Schools and the Black Panthers Stories of wartime internment and return. The painful history of redlining maps that forced families into corners. As each teen discovers a unique spiritual gift, they learn a vital lesson: while some powers isolate, others—like story, ritual, art, and collective care—might just save them all.

In this stunning debut, the Orishas are fighting to be remembered, a neighborhood is fighting to survive, and four youth discover that home isn’t just a place you return to—it’s something you choose to tend.

About the Author: Reagan E. J. Jackson (she/her) is a Seattle-based writer, facilitator, and “book doula”. She is the author of Still True: The Evolution of an Unexpected Journalist (Hinton Publishing 2024), three full- length poetry collections, two children’s books, and over 100 articles. Reagan is continuously plotting ways Black women can recharge, reset, reimagine, and rest, and is currently crafting her debut Young Adult novel.

www.wanawari.org

Wa Na Wari

Wa Na Wari creates space for Black ownership, possibility, & belonging through art, historic preservation, & connection.

www.wanawari.org