Black Mountain Institute

05/26/2026

Next week, join us at the Beverly Theater for our final BMI Live event of our 20th anniversary season: a screening of Gazelle with special guest – and the film’s co-writer, co-director, and lead actor – Nadir Sarıbacak.

After the film, Sarıbacak will participate in a moderated conversation with BMI City of Asylum Fellow Maryam Ala Amjadi followed by an audience Q&A and reception.

$0 tickets are running low. Click here to get yours: https://tinyurl.com/BMIGazelle

05/20/2026

We're seeing double. 😵‍💫 Isle McElroy and Isle McElroy joined us in the liminal space between dimensions to answer their own questions about their upcoming novel, writing about s*x, and unsettling encounters they've had in Las Vegas cocktail bars.

05/18/2026

Update ✨ 🎞️ Gazelle – A Screening and Conversation with Special Guest Nadir Sarıbacak (June 2, 2026 at the Beverly Theater)

Please join us for our final BMI Live event of our 20th anniversary season: a screening of Gazelle with special guest – and the film’s co-writer, co-director, and lead actor – Nadir Sarıbacak.

After the film, Sarıbacak will participate in a moderated conversation with BMI City of Asylum Fellow Maryam Ala Amjadi followed by an audience Q&A and reception.

Click here for $0 tickets: https://tinyurl.com/BMIGazelle

05/11/2026

Be careful around the eyes. 🌶️ BMI Library Sessions: KB Brookins (Spicy BBQ Edition) is now available on our YouTube channel.

Hey, what's going on everyone? For UNLV's Black Mountain Institute, you're watching the BMI Library Sessions: the show with hot questions, and even hotter BB...

05/08/2026

JUST ANNOUNCED 🎞️ Gazelle – A Screening and Conversation with Special Guest Nadir Sarıbacak (June 2, 2026 at the Beverly Theater)

Please join us for our final BMI Live event of our 20th anniversary season: a screening of Gazelle with special guest – and the film’s co-writer, co-director, and lead actor – Nadir Sarıbacak. Gazelle follows Yakup, an immigrant alone in New York who clings to hope of reunion. As the wait drags on, his grip on time and reality begins to slip, pulling him deeper into a fragile and unsettling inner world. Drawing from lived experiences of exile and displacement, Gazelle unfolds as an intimate psychological drama of separation, resilience, and the fragile terrain of the human mind.

After the film, Sarıbacak will participate in a moderated conversation and audience Q&A, which will be followed by a reception.

Click here for $0 tickets: https://tinyurl.com/BMIGazelle

05/07/2026

On this day in BMI History - Walter Mosley (May 7, 2015)

Eleven years ago today, novelist Walter Mosley delivered the inaugural Jim Rogers Contrarian Lecture at UNLV — a big moment for UNLV, BMI, and dramatic hand-on-face poses. Then BMI Artistic Director Maile Chapman recalled the conversation in an interview with UNLV Magazine: “The topic was higher education, but [Mosley] spoke to a large extent about race — and it was fascinating. I haven’t spoken to anyone who had a neutral reaction to that. He really woke people up in their seats.”

📸: Aaron Mayes/UNLV Photo Services

04/30/2026

Recordings of our 20th anniversary season virtual events are now available on our YouTube channel. Click the link below to revisit amazing conversations with writers like Ruben Reyes Jr., Johanna Hedva, Gina María Balibrera, and more:

Black Mountain Institute at UNLV champions writers and storytellers through programs, fellowships and community engagement. From the brightest spot on the planet, Black Mountain Institute amplifies writing and artistic expression to connect us to each other in the Las Vegas Valley, the Southwest, an...

04/29/2026

Join us at The Writer's Block tomorrow at 7pm to celebrate our Shearing Fellow KB Brookins. KB will be in conversation with Chancie Calliham and will sign copies of the new paperback edition of Pretty.

Following the chapbook “How To Identify Yourself With a Wound” and the poetry collection “Freedom House,” “Pretty” is the 30-year-old KB Brookins’ first memoir, based on their experiences growing u...

04/19/2026

GOOD NEWS!! A HUGE congratulations goes out to UNLV MFA alumna, Ucheoma Onwutuebe, whose short story "Where Are You and Where Is My Money" appearing in A Public Space, has been chosen as a WINNER of the 2026 O. Henry Prize for Short Fiction!