(BPRW) 2017 AAMBC AWARDS WILL HONOR ACCLAIMED POET NIKKI GIOVANNI

BLUE KIMBLE AND COMEDIAN ACTOR COCOA BROWN WILL CO-HOST AWARD SHOW HIGHLIGHTING AFRICAN AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENTS IN LITERATURE

(Black PR Wire) (Atlanta, GA) The ninth annual AAMBC Literary Awards will be held in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, June 10, 2017. The featured highlight is the Maya Angelou Lifetime achievement award being presented to acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni. AAMBC creator Tamika Newhouse says it is a dream to honor Giovanni and to bring her to the show’s home of Atlanta, GA. “Honoring Nikki Giovanni is a dream come true for me. It’s great to honor legends while we have them here with us. This means a lot to AAMBC and to the African American literary community,” Newhouse says.

After previous successful years, Newhouse extended the award show to include a full weekend, entitled the Black Writer’s Weekend. The entire weekend is filled with panels, workshops and a private movie screening with the formal awards gala positioned as the highlight of the weekend. “We have panels on breaking into screenwriting for TV & film, a relationship panel especially for women, a sci-fi writer’s workshop for high school students and author sightings and our celebratory book bash. This weekend was designed specifically for readers and writers of all genres, genders and ages,” Newhouse says. “We wanted this to be a true celebration of literary achievement in every area imaginable.”

In addition to honoring Giovanni and urban success story Teri Woods, Newhouse selected black Hollywood’s newest “it” guy Blue Kimble and the hilarious actor/comedienne Cocoa Brown to co-host the show. “We knew the energy Cocoa and Blue will bring to the show will keep the audience engaged and laughing throughout,” Newhouse says. Inspirational duo Will and Alexis are slated to perform as the featured entertainment for the AAMBC awards along with several other surprise celebrity presenters and appearances.

The annual AAMBC Literary Awards was launched in 2009 in San Antonio, Texas by the founder. Smaller ceremonies were then hosted in the years following in Chicago as well as in Baltimore in adjacent to various literary events. In 2015 the first inaugural red carpet ceremony took place in Atlanta, GA marking the beginning of the black writer’s weekend.

“To understand the importance of AAMBC’s presence in the book industry is to understand the value of supporting our black writers. The awards serve as the premiere event the industry talks about and artist strive to be,” Newhouse explains.

For a complete listing of the workshops, panels and discussions scheduled for the AAMBC awards visit www.aambcaawards.com