Upcoming Events
2027 Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence
April 15, 2027 at Zoo Atlanta
Tickets on Sale Now
Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence
April 16, 2026
-
Zoo Atlanta
800 Cherokee Ave SE, Atlanta, GA 30315 - Thursday April 16, 2026
Throughout their lifetime, C.T. and Octavia Vivian collected more than 6,000 books on African American literature, history, poetry, and similar works. To honor their legacy and advance the vision, The C.T. Vivian Foundation Inc. is hosting a fundraising dinner at Zoo Atlanta on April 16th, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. This benefit will honor best-selling authors who have made exceptional contributions to the African American experience.
2026 AWARDEES:
Pearl Cleage
Acclaimed Atlanta-based writer Pearl Cleage currently serves as Distinguished Artist in Residence at the Alliance Theatre and as Atlanta’s Poet Laureate. A graduate of Spelman College, she is the best-selling author of eight novels, a memoir, two books of poetry, and fifteen plays. Her work has been performed in theaters across the country and at London’s National Theatre, with her celebrated play Blues for an Alabama Sky headed to Broadway this year.
A dynamic and multifaceted theater artist, Cleage has collaborated extensively with her husband, writer Zaron Burnett, Jr., including performance work featured in the award-winning documentary Live at Club Zebra! Together, they also partnered with artist Radcliffe Bailey on the children’s book In My Granny’s Garden, which was distributed to thousands of Atlanta children and later adapted into an interactive theater experience performed in multiple cities.
Cleage spent 14 years as resident playwright with the Palefsky Collision Project at the Alliance Theatre, creating original works with metro Atlanta youth and inspiring them to see themselves as citizen artists. She also launched the project’s annual King Day Performances, offered free to audiences at the Woodruff Arts Center and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.
A lifelong activist, Cleage has been deeply engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Arts, Women’s, and anti-war movements. She served as a speechwriter and press secretary for former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson and began her career as an archivist at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where she worked alongside leaders of the Movement. Among her many honors are the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Paul Robeson Award from Actors’ Equity Foundation, and the 2026 Legacy Award from the Dramatists Guild Foundation. She counts among the great honors of her life her friendship with C.T. Vivian.
Trymaine Lee
Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award–winning journalist Trymaine Lee has built a distinguished career reporting on race, justice, and gun violence in America. He is the best-selling author of A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America, a powerful examination of the generational impact of gun violence and the systems shaping Black life in the United States.
Lee is a contributor to MSNBC and the founder of I Am Somebody Media, through which he has created and produced impactful documentaries and televised specials, including Hope in High Water: A People’s Recovery Twenty Years After Hurricane Katrina (2025), Black Men in America: The Road to 2024, and Stone Ghosts of the South: Confederate Monuments and America’s Battle with Itself.
A contributing writer to The 1619 Project, Lee’s work has earned numerous honors, including Webby and Signal Awards, NABJ Salute to Excellence Awards, and NAACP Image Award nominations. His reporting on gun violence in Chicago earned an Emmy Award in 2018, and in 2006, he shared the Pulitzer Prize as part of The Times-Picayune’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He has been named to The Root 100 and Ebony Power 100 lists, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Tribune, The Trentonian, and HuffPost.
Isabel Wilkerson
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson is one of the most influential narrative nonfiction writers of our time. She is the acclaimed author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, both New York Times bestsellers that have reshaped the national conversation on race, history, and social hierarchy in America.
The Warmth of Other Suns chronicles the Great Migration through the lives of three individuals, the result of 15 years of research and more than 1,200 interviews. Widely celebrated as a landmark work, it has received numerous honors and is considered among the most important nonfiction books of the 21st century. Her follow-up, Caste, examines the hidden social hierarchy that underpins American life and became an instant bestseller, earning widespread critical acclaim and major literary recognition.
Wilkerson was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times, becoming the first Black woman to win for individual reporting. A graduate of Howard University, she has taught at leading institutions including Harvard, Princeton, Emory, and Boston University, and has lectured at more than 300 colleges worldwide. She has received twelve honorary degrees and has appeared on national programs including 60 Minutes, NPR’s Fresh Air, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN, and C-SPAN.
The Advocate: The C.T. Vivian Social Justice Award
In 2023, The Advocate: The C.T. Vivian Social Justice Award, was developed to honor civil rights leaders and humanitarians who like Dr. Vivian, humbly and tirelessly do the work for positive social change without seeking recognition. The first awardees, Xernona Clayton (Civil Rights Advocate, member of M.L. King’s staff), and Elisabeth Omilami (Humanitarian and CEO of Hosea Helps) were honored at the 2023 Kaleidoscope Awards for Literary Excellence.
The 2026 Advocate: C.T. Vivian Social Justice Awardee
Khari Arnold
Khari Arnold is the founder of The Library Dads, a Georgia-based nonprofit that promotes literacy while creating meaningful community for fathers and their children. A man of faith, husband, and father, he is passionate about strengthening family bonds through reading.
Born with one hand, Arnold never allowed limitations to define him. A graduate of Howard University, he went on to become the youngest journalist at NBA.com, where he spent a decade covering basketball and writing on social justice and support for Black-owned businesses.
A member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and 21st Century Leaders, he was recognized in 2019 as one of the organization’s 30 most outstanding alumni.
Through The Library Dads, Arnold leads one of Atlanta’s most impactful fatherhood initiatives, featured on Black Enterprise and the TODAY Show. Its signature “Library Link-Ups” bring dads and children together to read, connect, and build community—laying the foundation for a growing national movement.
Honorary Host Committee
George Andrews
Jay Bailey
Taylor Branch
Bill Campbell
Rev. Gerald Durley
Valerie Jackson
Tayari Jones
Hank Klibanoff
Amanda Brown Olmstead
Elisabeth Omilami
Jay Scott
Doug Shipman
Dominic Stokes
Ernie Suggs
Our Supporters
