OWWA has sponsored three 'Yari Yari' international conferences for Black women writers. The first, "Yari Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future", was held in 1997. It was "the first major international conference devoted to the evaluation and celebration of literature from around the world by women of African descent".Williams, Lena, "Literary Women With Roots In Africa", The New York Times, October 16, 1997. The conference was attended by two thousand women, and participants included Maya Angelou and Edwidge Danticat. Cortez directed Yari Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future (1999), which documented panels, readings and performances held during that conference. A second conference, "Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissection of Globalization", was held in 2004. It was sponsored by OWWA in association with New York University's Institute of African-American Affairs and African Studies Program. Cortex's statement of welcome announced the ambition of the event:
