With a date to reopen for public events uncertain, the Royall House & Slave Quarters is presenting three virtual events under the umbrella “Giving Voice,” the title of its traditional annual fundraiser. This evening’s program will be an engaging reading and conversation with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, author of “The Age of Phillis,” long-listed for the 2020 National Book Award for poetry. Jeffers is a poet, fiction writer, scholar and essayist whose work examines culture, religion, history and family.

Her new book is about Phillis Wheatley, who as a young, African American woman in 1773 published a book of poetry that challenged Western prejudices about African and female intellectual capabilities. Based on 15 years of archival research, “The Age of Phillis” imagines the life and times of Phillis Wheatley Peters through poems about her “age” — the era that encompassed political, philosophical and religious upheaval, as well as the transatlantic slave trade.

Registration is required, and the Royall House & Slave Quarters asks audience members to please make a donation of any amount to attend. Full details at www.eventbrite.com/e/138447378837