Alabama Humanities Alliance Presents: Rick Bragg & Roy Wood Jr.: In Conversation

Part of the 2024 Alabama Colloquium series, this event features an in-depth conversation between author Rick Bragg and humorist Roy Wood Jr. The duo will be recognized as Alabama Humanities Fellows for how they use the humanities – and their Alabama roots – to tell stories that challenge us to think, to empathize, and explore what makes us human.

Proceeds from this event benefit the Alabama Humanities Alliance, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that offers public humanities programs and grant opportunities statewide. For 50 years, storytelling has remained at the heart of AHA’s mission. Learn more about AHA’s story at alabamahumanities.org.

More about the honorees:

A native of the Appalachian foothills in northeastern Alabama, Rick Bragg has long been lauded as one of the most distinct, illustrative storytellers in American literature. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including All Over but the Shoutin’, Ava’s Man, and The Prince of Frogtown. He has also won awards for his journalism at newspapers from The Jacksonville (Ala.) News to the New York Times. For the past two decades, Bragg has served as the Clarence Cason Professor of Writing at the University of Alabama.

A Birmingham native, Roy Wood Jr. is a comedian, an Emmy-nominated documentary producer (The Neutral Ground) and was a longtime correspondent on Comedy Central’s Emmy-winning “The Daily Show.” He has three comedy specials, and has a fourth special forthcoming, along with a memoir. Last year, Wood Jr. headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner; in 2024, he was an ambassador and reporter for MLB’s “Tribute to the Negro Leagues” game in Birmingham and hosted the “Road to Rickwood” podcast.