The Body and Power: New Black Poetry

Dawn Lundy Martin is the author of Good Stock Strange Blood (Coffee House Press, 2017), A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering (University of Georgia Press, 2007), Discipline (Nightboat Books, 2011), and Life in a Box is a Pretty Life (Nightboat Books, 2015). Martin is also a cofounder of the Black Took Collective and a member of the HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN? global arts collective. She is professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

Morgan Parker is the author of the poetry collections Magical Negro, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, and Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night. Her debut YA novel Who Put This Song On? will be published in Fall 2019 from Delacorte Press, and her debut book of nonfiction is forthcoming from One World/Random House. Park3er is the recipient of a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She is the creator and host of Reparations, Live! at the Ace Hotel. With Tommy Pico, she co-curates the Poets with Attitude (PWA) reading series, and with Angel Nafis, she is The Other Black Girl Collective. She lives in Los Angeles.

Recipient of a 2017 NEA Award, Danez Smith is a Black, queer, poz writer, and performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017). Danez is also the author of two chapbooks, hands on your knees (2013, Penmanship Books) and black movie (2015, Button Poetry), winner of the Button Poetry Prize. They are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and is a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. Danez’s work has been featured widely, including on Buzzfeed, Blavity, PBS NewsHour, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They are a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, 3-time Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, and a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective. Danez is represented by Beotis Creative. Also appearing in:

Live Wire with Luke Burbank

Date: Sunday, Nov 12 Venue: Mississippi Studios Doors: 10:00am / Show: 11:00am

w/ Ed Asner + Edan Lepucki + Danez Smith + Chad VanGaalen

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Béalleka is a Kenyan-born, Portland-based public educator and cultural consultant who helps people identify, challenge, and heal from institutional oppression. Her work builds from the premise that recognizing and unlearning divisive social constructs of race, gender, and sexuality­ effectively serves this urgent purpose. For over a decade, Béalleka taught literature and cultural studies specializing in contemporary representations of American slavery at universities across the U.S. She holds a doctorate in postcolonial literature and theory with a certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and is the recipient of two MacArthur Teaching and Research Fellowships and a grant from the American Association of University Women. She leads Delve Readers Seminars for Literary Arts on works by Toni Morrison, Jesmyn Ward and James Baldwin; speaks nationally about intersectionality and unlearning racism; and frequently performs in live storytelling shows. Find more Béalleka at www.unlearningpodcast.com

LITERARY ARTS BLOG FEATURE: DELVE SPOTLIGHT ON BÉALLEKA (FROM JULY 2016)

 

PAST SEMINARS

16/17 SEASON

Haunting Legacies: Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Contemporary Representations of Slavery Seminar Summaries (by Kirstin Fulton)