26

SUNDAY

It’s been 24 years since the death of Larry Neal, the poet, playwright, essayist, and critic who was integral to the Black Arts movement of the ’60s. And this is the 22nd year that the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities (DCCAH) has honored him by hosting the Larry Neal Writers’ Competition, a local contest for aspiring authors. Previous notable winners include D.C. poets Naomi Ayala and Sarah Browning. (And for all you Comicon johns out there: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, who was a Larry Neal first-place winner for a 2001 play, now pens stories for the Marvel Knights 4 and Nightcrawler series.) Judged by a volunteer panel of local literary types, the 2005 winners—poets Carlos Parada and Laura Brown, fiction writer Graham Dunstan, and playwright Clarence Coo—each already took home 600 big ones. And this year, “in addition to cash,” says DCCAH project manager José Dominguez, “we’d like to give them a little career boost.” So come boost the winners when they read at 1 p.m. at Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW. Free. (202) 364-1919.