The Turn Up: Black Women in the Writers' Room with Jonterri Gadson, Vannessa Jackson, and Chinaka Hodge

Torch Literary Arts is proud to present The Turn Up: Black Women in the Writers' Room featuring Jonterri Gadson, Vannessa Jackson, and Chinaka Hodge! Panelists will share their experiences writing for some of your favorite TV shows and the joys and challenges of building a career inside the writers' room. 

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. for a short screening of work written by panelists. 

The panel will start at 6:30 p.m. 

Light refreshments will be served. 

Cost: Free  

(donations are appreciated) 

Jonterri Gadson is a former creative writing professor who chose writing/directing/producing TV & Film over seeking tenure. She currently writes for the upcoming EVERYBODY STILL HATES CHRIS. She has also written for HBO’s A BLACK LADY SKETCH SHOW (for which she is Emmy-nominated), Netflix’s THE UPSHAWS (Season 2),  NBC’s MAKING IT with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, The Kelly Clarkson Show, and Adult Swim’s half-hour comedy Bird Girl. Additionally, she was a Comedy Consulting Producer on 12 Dates of Christmas (HBO Max) writing comedic host copy for Natasha Rothwell. She won Kevin Hart’s LOL Film Fellowship for a short she wrote/directed and premiered at the American Black Film Festival. She’s an alum of the NBC Late Night Writers Workshop, New York Stage & Film Filmmakers Lab, Refinery29 & TBS Riot Comedy Writers Lab, and the IFP Project Forum. She’s published three poetry books, including the full-length poetry collection Blues Triumphant (YesYes Books).

Chinaka Hodge is a poet, educator playwright and screenwriter. She has written for TNT's Snowpiercer,  Apple TV+'s Amazing Stories, Netflix's The Midnight Club, and Marvel's Ironheart for Disney+. Originally from Oakland, California, she graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in May of 2006, and was honored to be the student speaker at the 174th Commencement exercise. Chinaka was a 2012 Artist in Residence at The Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, CA. In early 2013, Hodge was a Sundance Feature Film lab Fellow for her script, 700th&Int’l. Since its early days, Chinaka has served in various capacities at Youth Speaks/The Living Word Project, the nation’s leading literary arts non­profit. During her tenure there, Hodge served as Program Director, Associate Artistic Director, and worked directly with Youth Speaks’ core population ­­ as a teaching artist and poet mentor. Her poems, editorials, interviews and prose have been featured in Newsweek, San Francisco Magazine, Believer Magazine,  PBS,  NPR, CNN, C­Span, and in two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry. 

Vannessa Jackson is a stand-up comedian and writer currently writing on the 48th season of Saturday Night Live. Previously, she wrote for A Little Late with Lilly Singh and was a writing apprentice for season four of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.

Help TORCH continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today.