Horace Cay­ton: Black Renais­sance Man and Racon­teur Event

Thursday, February 12, 2026
2–3pm

Vir­tu­al

Click Here to Register for Free Tickets!

This event is part of LBI’s pro­gram­ming series sur­round­ing their exhi­bi­tion And That’s True Too: The Life and Work of Lore Segal

In this talk, writer Jef­fery Allen will dis­cuss the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of Horace Cay­ton, who became the roman­tic part­ner to Lore Segal soon after the end of World War II. Allen will posi­tion Cay­ton, a well-known intel­lec­tu­al and polit­i­cal fig­ure known for his quips and col­or­ful per­son­al­i­ty, with­in the larg­er frame­work of the Harlem Renais­sance, as a mem­ber of the gen­er­a­tion termed the ​“New Negro” and as a part of the bur­geon­ing Civ­il Rights Move­ment. Cay­ton served as the inspi­ra­tion for Lore’s char­ac­ter of Carter Bay­oux in her best-known nov­el, Her First American.

About the Speaker

Jef­fery Renard Allen is the award-win­ning author of six books of fic­tion and poet­ry, includ­ing the cel­e­brat­ed nov­el Song of the Shank, which was a front-page review in both The New York Times Book Review and The San Fran­cis­co Chron­i­cle. Allen’s oth­er acco­lades include The Chica­go Tri­bune​’s Heart­land Prize for Fic­tion, The Chica­go Pub­lic Library’s Twen­ty-First Cen­tu­ry Award, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Lit­er­ary Excel­lence, a grant from Cre­ative Cap­i­tal, a Whit­ing Writ­ers’ Award, a Guggen­heim fel­low­ship, a NYFA grant, res­i­den­cies at the Bel­la­gio Cen­ter, Ucross, The Her­mitage, VCCA, Mon­son Arts, and Jen­tel Arts, and fel­low­ships at The Cen­ter for Schol­ars and Writ­ers, the Johan­nes­burg Insti­tute for Advanced Stud­ies, and the Schom­burg Cen­ter for Research in Black Cul­ture. He was a final­ist for both the PEN/​Faulkner Award and the Carnegie Medal for Excel­lence in Fic­tion. Allen is the founder and edi­tor of Taint Taint Taint mag­a­zine and is the Africa Edi­tor for The Ever­green Review. His lat­est books are the short sto­ry col­lec­tion Fat Time and the mem­oir An Unspeak­able Hope, the lat­ter co-authored with Leon Ford. Allen is at work on sev­er­al projects, includ­ing a mem­oir enti­tled Moth­er-Wit, a book of poems called No Bor­ders, and the short sto­ry col­lec­tion Try Me. Allen makes his home in Johan­nes­burg and New York. Find out more about him at www​.writer​j​ef​fer​yre​nardallen​.com.

Jew­ish Book Coun­cil is a part­ner on this event with The Leo Baeck Insti­tute – New York | Berlin