Two years ago, UNC professor Tanya Shields’ friend Kathy Perkins read a book called “Help Me Find My People” by Heather Williams.

“It’s a really compelling book,” Shields said. “And after Kathy read it, she’s like ‘we have to do something with this book, we have to do something with this book.’ I hear stuff like that all the time so I’m like ‘oh yeah sure.'”

Now Williams will be coming to UNC as Shields and Perkins put on a conference festival they’ve named “Telling Our Stories of Home.”

“I think it’s really a time, an opportunity for us to think about what does home mean for me, what might it mean for my neighbor,” Shields said. “And how can I learn more about that? How can I be open to it? And how can I really challenge my fears to be open to someone else’s story?”

The conference festival will start Thursday and features a number of lectures, artists, films and other performances from guests travelling across the globe, including the Siddis, who are an African diasporan community found in India.

“We’ve invited 28 participates from around the world,” Shields said. “We have people coming from the US, the UK, South Africa, Rwanda, Brazil, Haiti, Grenada and very special for us people coming from India who identify as African descendants in India.

The conference festival will even feature an interpretation of Williams’ book that inspired the event. It has been turned into a play and a dramatic reading will take place during the festival.

For more information and to see a full list of events, visit their website.

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