Karyn Parsons, a multi-talented creative artist, starred as Hilary Banks, Will Smith’s shopping-and-money-obsessed cousin, on the NBC sitcom, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" from 1990 to 1996. An author of books for children, she is the founder of Sweet Blackberry, a small press whose mission is to bring little-known stories of Black achievement to young readers.

Her middle grade novel, How High the Moon (2019), recounts the challenges of a 12-year-old girl living in the Jim Crow South in 1944. Jacqueline Woodson called it, “historical and timely, captivating, and lovely.” Her newest book, Clouds Over California (2023), is about a girl coming of age in 1970s Los Angeles, during a time of unrest and social change. Parsons will spend much of her day in Albany visiting with middle school students.

Karyn Parsons
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 19
The Alice Moore Black Arts and Cultural Center
135 South Pearl St., Albany NY 12202
Free and open to the public More information https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org/karynparsons

Major support and funding provided by the Carl E. Touhey Foundation.
Presented by the NYS Writers Institute.