WASHINGTON, D.C.- The ancient art of story-telling is explored and celebrated in an exhibition featuring filmed interviews with nine professional writers speaking on topics ranging from how they find inspiration and create characters, to how history , politics and current events affect their writing. “All the Stories Are True: African American Writers Speak,” opens June 7 at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture and will be on view until Dec. 31.

On view during the same period in the John R. Kinard gallery are 12 works by

William H. Smith, a Maryland native and silver medalist at the 1939 World’s Fair and one 1999 mixed media sculpture by Floyd Roberts, a widely exhibited artist who was born in Trinidad and now lives in Maryland.

The literary exhibition was developed by the Anacostia Museum with guest curator E. Ethelbert Miller, Washington-based poet, author and anthologist whose work includes Whispers, Secrets & Promises and Fathering Words: The Making of an African American Writer. In addition to the filmed interviews visitors will see footage of the featured authors reading from their works as well as items drawn from their homes and writing spaces. The nine new video productions contain never-before-seen footage; it was shot specifically for this exhibition and on location in the authors’ homes, offices and studios.

“Since the 1980s another literary renaissance has been taking place within African American culture … More books by African American authors are being sold in the United States than ever before,” Miller writes in his introduction to the exhibition. “Where do these stories come from? Who are these writers influencing our thoughts and dreams?”

The exhibition provides some answers by showcasing some of the most engaging writers

on the scene today.

A portion of the exhibition is devoted to African American children’s literature and book illustrations by Kadir Nelson. His work appears in eight children’s books including Dancing in the Wings by dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen, and Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee. His illustrations in Just the Two of Us, written by actor Will Smith, won Nelson an NAACP Image Award.