Monday, April 27, 2015

POETRY EVENTS - NEW YORK CITY

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Thursday, May 7, 7:00pm

New York, NY

THE NEW SALON: READINGS AND CONVERSATIONS
Yona Harvey and Afaa Weaver, with Charif Shanahan

Yona Harvey is a literary artist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the author of the poetry collection, Hemming the Water (Four Way Books: New York), which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award from Claremont Graduate University.  She is also the recipient of an Individual Artist Grant in literary nonfiction from The Pittsburgh Foundation.   Her poems can be found in jubilat, Gulf Coast, Callaloo, West Branch, and various journals and anthologies, including A Poet's Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry (Ed. Annie Finch). She lives in Pennsylvania, where she is Assistant Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of 14 collections of poetry, most recently City of Eternal Spring. His 12th collection, The Government of Nature, won the 2014 Kingsley Tufts Award. His other honors include three Pushcart prizes in poetry, NEA and Pew fellowships, and a Fulbright appointment in 2002 to teach in Taiwan. Also a playwright, he received the PDI Award (1993), and his new play is GRIP. Afaa works in contemporary Chinese poetry as a translator and teaches at Simmons College and in the Drew University MFA program in Poetry and Poetry in Translation.  His websites: plumflowertrilogy.org  &  afaaweaver.net
Co-Sponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Program.Admission is free.

Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House
New York University
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Saturday, May 16, 3:00pm

A TRIBUTE TO WANDA COLEMAN

The public is invited to attend a celebration of Wanda Coleman's life and work.  Welcomed by Wanda Coleman's widower Austin Straus, distinguished contemporary poets will read a selection of Wanda's poems and discuss her impact on their lives and work. 
Co-sponsored by Poets House.
Poets House
1o River Terrace
8 West 10th Street

Friday, April 24, 2015

PULITZER PRIZE FOR POETRY 2015

Gregory Pardlo is Awarded 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Greg Pardlo reading at Bowdoin College, September 6, 2007.
Greg Pardlo reading at Bowdoin College, September 6, 2007.
Congratulations to Gregory Pardlo, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection, Digest (Four Way Books, 2014).

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

POETIC BIRTHDAYS FOR APRIL

THE FOLLOWING BLACK POETS WILL CELEBRATE THEIR BIRTHDAYS THIS MONTH:


4/16/1972 - Tracy K. Smith



4/26/1966 - Natasha Trethewey




4/29/1947 - Yusef Komunyakaa



FOR A BIO AND SAMPLING OF THEIR POETRY - GOOGLE THEIR NAMES.

READ THIS POEM OUT LOUD


"Learning to Read"
by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 - 1911)
Very soon the Yankee teachers
            Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,—
            It was agin’ their rule.
Our masters always tried to hide
            Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge didn’t agree with slavery—
            ‘Twould make us all too wise.
But some of us would try to steal
            A little from the book,
And put the words together,
            And learn by hook or crook.
I remember Uncle Caldwell,
            Who took pot-liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
            And hid it in his hat.
And had his master ever seen
            The leaves upon his head,
He’d have thought them greasy papers,
            But nothing to be read.
And there was Mr. Turner’s Ben,
            Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
             And learned to read ‘em well.
Well, the Northern folks kept sending
            The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
            Though Rebs did sneer and frown.
And, I longed to read my Bible,
            For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
            Folks just shook their heads,
And said there is no use trying,
            Oh! Chloe, you’re too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
            I had no time to wait.
So I got a pair of glasses,
            And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
            The hymns and Testament.
Then I got a little cabin—
            A place to call my own—
And I felt as independent
            As the queen upon her throne.

  

Thursday, April 16, 2015

POETRY EVENT - CHICAGO


READING

Fifth Wednesday Journal: African American Poets in Review

Thursday, April 23, 6:30PM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free Admission
Haki Madhubuti will introduce a reading by Kelly Norman Ellis, Calvin Forbes, Angela Jackson, and Roger Reeves. The event, which will include music and a reception, is co-presented by the independent literary magazine Fifth Wednesday Journal.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

POETIC BIRTHDAY

A REMEMBRANCE CELEBRATION FOR APRIL'S POETIC  BIRTHDAYS




4/3/1826 - JAMES MADISON BELL - 1826 - 1902

4/4/1928 -MAYA ANGELOU -1928-2014






For a bio, and sampling of their verse, Google-search their names.