The late Elinor Williams Hooker, a longtime Nashua resident, teacher and social activist, for whom the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail's monthly Winter Tea Talks series is named, was photographed with her husband, Tom, at their Nashua home. (Telegraph file photo)

PORTSMOUTH – One week after kicking off this year’s Elinor Williams Hooker Winter Tea Talk lecture series – named for the late longtime Nashua resident and social activist – the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire on Sunday will host the second in its six-part virtual lecture series.

Titled “Writing while Black: The Afrofuturistic Writer,” Sunday’s program, from 2-4 p.m., will feature three authors who will explore Black voices and characters in a literary genre where they have been historically absent, according to the organization.

There is no charge to take part in the program, but participants must register at blackheritagetrailnh.org/tea-talks ahead of time.

The Black Heritage Trail named its Winter Tea Talk lecture series in honor of Hooker in 2014, shortly after she passed at home in Nashua, with her husband of 50 years, Thomas, at her side, after a long illness.

The theme of this season’s six-part program, “Claiming Our Place: Blacks in ‘White Spaces,'” focuses on “rethinking our assumptions about race and place,” while exploring “how African Americans navigate various ‘white spaces,'” those spaces “where Blacks and people of color are marginalized, typically absent, and unexpected,” according to Black Heritage Trail spokeswoman Gina Bowker.

Courtesy photo One of the banners the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail uses to advertise its Elinor Williams Hooker Winter Tea Talk lecture series, named in honor of the late Nashua resident and social activist. (Courtesy photo)

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About Elinor Williams Hooker

Born in 1933 in Pittsburgh, Elinor Williams grew up in the city’s Wylie Avenue section, an active community of Black-owned businesses, jazz music and churches that shaped her lifelong interest in multi-cultural activities.

Upon coming to Nashua in the 1970s with her husband Tom – who served a number of years as director of the New Hampshire Division of Welfare – Elinor Hooker became an active community volunteer that included affiliations with the Mayor’s Multicultural Committee and New Hampshire Outreach for Black Unity (OBU).

Before coming to Nashua, Hooker taught English in junior and senior high schools in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and when the family moved East, she taught in Brockton and Quincy, Massachusetts schools.

Telegraph file photo The late Elinor Williams Hooker, a longtime Nashua resident, teacher and social activist, for whom the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail's monthly Winter Tea Talks series is named. (Telegraph file photo)

Upon moving to Nashua, Hooker taught school in Concord before becoming a tutor in English for middle school ESL programs in Nashua.

As for Sunday’s program, the presenters – Nisi Shawl, an African American author of science fiction and fantasy short stories; Reynaldo Anderson, Associate Professor of Communication and Humanities Department chairman at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, Missouri; and Sheree Renee Thomas, an award winning fiction writer, poet, and editor – will “discuss Black writers and characters in a genre where they have not been expected to excel,” according to Bowker.

Dennis Britton, Associate Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, will serve as moderator.

Future Tea Talk programs include “Race and Care of the Soul,” scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, and “It Happened In New Hampshire: Black History in the Granite State,” from 1:45-3:45 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28.

For more information on Tea Talk and other Black Heritage Trail programs go to blackheritagetrailnh.org

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.