blackness
Showing 24 items.
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The Poetry Center presents Anne Lesley Selcer and Dawn Lundy Martin, in the first of two programs they share on the same date. Here they each read their work and engage in conversation with one another and the audience at The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University. Martin selected Selcer's From A Book of Poems on Beauty for the 2014 Gazing Grain Chapbook Award, which opened the occasion for their invitation to appear together. Selcer reads from that chapbook, and Martin reads for the first time in public from her soon-to-be-published book, Life in a Box Is a Pretty Life (Nightboat Books, 2015), followed by a generous set of responses to questions from their audience. That same evening, the poets appeared again together, reading their work at The Green Arcade in downtown San Francisco.
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The Poetry Center presents Arisa White reading from Post Pardon (Mouthfeel Press) and A Penny Saved (Aquarius Press, 2012) and Raina J. Léon reading from Boogeyman Dawn (Salmon Poetry, 2014) followed by questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center and the Museum of the African Diaspora co-present artist Asya Abdrahman and writers Faith Adiele and Tonya M. Foster, each presenting their work then responding to questions from the audience. The program, titled "Navigating Space for Women," took place at MoAD, San Francisco, within the context of the exhibition "Where Is Here" (curated by Jacqueline Francis and Kathy Zarur) and in celebration of International Women's Day, and was co-sponsored by MoAD and the Poetry Center. During March 2017, all Poetry Center programs were dedicated to the theme "Because We Come from Everything: Poetry and Migration," shared with 30+ organizations across the US engaged in the Poetry Coalition.
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The Poetry Center presents Camille T. Dungy and Javier Zamora, reading and in conversation. Camille Dungy reads poems from Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan University Press, 2017) and excerpts from her prose work Guidebook to Relative Strangers (W.W. Norton, 2017). Javier Zamora reads poems from Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon Press, 2017). The readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Darius James and Val Jeanty in a first-ever collaboratiive "workshop performance" at The Poetry Center, in advance of their full performance the following night at The Lab in San Francisco. James reads from a newly issued edition of his novel Negrophobia: An Urban Parable (NYRB, 2019). Jeanty plays an electronic Korg Wavedrum as well as electronic turntables, improvising in real time with James's reading. This event, the first of a three-evening program in The Poetry Center's In Common Writers Series, was supported by a grant from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
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The Poetry Center presents David Henderson reading a retrospective selection of poems, from his earliest published works to the present, and in conversation with the audience. Henderson reads from Felix of the Silent Forest (Poets Press, 1967), De Mayor of Harlem (E.P. Dutton, 1970), The Low East (North Atlantic Books, 1980), Neo California (North Atlantic Books, 1998), and newer work from manuscript, including a work-in-progress “For Gil Scott-Heron.” His reading is followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Dawn Lundy Martin and Anne Lesley Selcer in the second of two programs they share on the same date (having read earlier at The Poetry Center). Here they read their poetry at The Green Arcade in San Francisco. Selcer reads from her chapbook From A Book of Poems on Beauty (Gazing Grain Press, 2015), and Martin reads from her then newest book, Life in a Box Is a Pretty Life (Nightboat Books, 2015). Patrick Marks, proprietor of the Green Arcade, and Steve Dickison from The Poetry Center provide the introductions.
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The Poetry Center presents Douglas Kearney and Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta, reading and in conversation. Douglas Kearney performs works from his books Buck Studies (Fence Books, 2016) and Someone Took They Tongues (Subito Press, 2016), as well as new work, plus an improvised piece incorporating lines out of books from Poetry Center shelves (Lawrence Raab, Mark Jarman, Maude Meehan, Artie Gold, Rochelle Owens, and the North Coast Review) with Kearney's own Buck Studies and Mess and Mess and (Noemi Press, 2015). Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta reads new works and poetry from her book The Easy Body (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2017). The readings are followed by an extended conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents erica lewis, Poetry Center Mazza Writer in Residence for Spring 2022, joined by Divya Victor. Victor reads from her book CURB (Nightboat Books, 2021), at the time of the reading just awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Pen American Open Book Award, and lewis reads from mary wants to be a superwoman (Third Man Books, 2017). Following their readings, the poets join in conversation, along with emcee, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta. The Mazza Writer in Residence program is supported by the Sam Mazza Foundation.
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The Poetry Center presents Frank B. Wilderson III reading from the manuscript to his forthcoming book, provisionally titled Afro-Pessimism (due early 2020 from Liveright Publishing/W.W. Norton). His reading is followed by a conversation with the audience. This event, the first of two, inaugurates The Poetry Center's Black Study Series, a new annual program supported by an anonymous donor and, in this instance, the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Poetry Center presents Gwendolyn Brooks, reading at Wheeler Hall, the University of California, Berkeley, at an event co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley English Department and The Poetry Center. Brooks reads poems published at the time in magazines and newspapers, selections from Winnie (Third World Press, 1991), A Street in Bronzeville (Harper & Bros., 1945), In Montgomery, and Other Poems (Third World Press, 2003), Children Coming Home (David Co., 1991), The Bean Eaters (Harper & Bros., 1960), The Near-Johannesburg Boy (David Co., 1987), and Gottschalk and the Grand Tarantelle (David Co., 1988), commenting throughout on her work. Black studies scholar and UC Berkeley professor Barbara Christian contributes at the close of the recording. Note: This recording is audio only. Photo of Gwendolyn Brooks, April 21, 1997, by Jewelle Gomez.
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The Poetry Center presents Jasmine Gibson and Juliana Spahr reading from their works. Jasmine Gibson opens, reading poems from her newly published book, Don't Let Them See Me Like This (Nightboat Books, 2018) as well as newer work from manuscript. Juliana Spahr reads an extended excerpt from a new, as yet untitled, work in progress. This event is the second evening of a double program, and part of The Poetry Center's In Common Writers Series, supported by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.
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The Poetry Center presents the Lewis Jordan Trio in performance on the 116th anniversary of the birth of Langston Hughes. The trio, consisting of Lewis Jordan (voice, alto saxophone, harmonica), Sandra Poindexter (violin, electric violin, percussion), and Jimmy Biala (voice, percussion, drums), performs music to poetry by Langston Hughes, Lewis Jordan, and Bertolt Brecht, including some works found on the CD, Lewis Jordan and Music at Large, this is where i came in (Common Notions, 2017). The performance is followed by a conversation in response to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center and the SFSU Labor Archives and Research Center co-present "Working with Others: Convivial Research (Revisited)," a panel with Manuel (Manolo) Callahan, Stefano Harney, and Tonika Sealy Thompson, moderated by Steve Dickison, at the third annual Howard Zinn Book Fair, at City College of San Francisco, Mission Campus. Note: the recording begins in medias res.
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The Poetry Center, as the inaugural event in the Leslie Scalapino 21st Century Innovative Writers Series, presents M. NourbeSe Philip, at McRoskey Mattress Co., San Francisco, in performance and in conversation. Philip reads and performs work from Zong! (Wesleyan University Press, 2008). The reading is followed by a conversation with the audience. The evening was co-sponsored by The Green Arcade. The annual series is supported by the Leslie Scalapino-O Books Fund.
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The Poetry Center presents Morgan Parker and Charif Shanahan, reading and in conversation. Charif Shanahan reads poetry from his collection Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2017) as well as some newer work from manuscript. Morgan Parker reads from her books Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night (Switchback Books, 2015), There are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (Tin House, 2017), and Magical Negro (Tin House, 2019), before reading some new work from manuscript. Following the readings, both writers engage in conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center, together with Women and Gender Studies, Latina/Latino Studies, and Africana Studies at San Francisco State University, presents celebrated Afro-Cuban poet Nancy Morejón, reading her poetry and engaging with questions from the full-house audience. After opening remarks by Steve Dickison of The Poetry Center, Jillian Sandell, chair of Women and Gender Studies, introduces bookseller and activist Tony Ryan, who invites the audience to other local appearances by Morejón and alerts the audience to the newly arrived book Homing Instincts / Querencias (Cubana Books, 2014), a bilingual collection of Morejón's work with translations by Pamela Carmel. Sandell then returns and introduces Nancy Morejón together with translator Barbara Paschke, who reads Morejón's poems in English. This program was one of several local appearances by Morejón, on a rare visit to the Bay Area, and took place as the first in a series of lectures sponsored by Women and Gender Studies for Fall 2014.
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The Poetry Center presents Nellie Wong and Genny Lim reading and in conversation. Wong reads works from Breakfast Lunch Dinner (Meridian Press Works, 2012), The Death of Long Steam Lady (West End Press, 1986), Stolen Moments (Chicory Blue Press, 1997), and Speaking for Myself (Chicory Blue Press, 2014). Lim reads new work along with poems from Kra! (Omerta Publications, 2016) and Paper Gods and Rebels (Ishmael Reed Publishing Co., 2013). The readings are followed by an extensive conversation in response to questions from the audience.
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The Poetry Center Presents Pat Parker and Audre Lorde reading at the Women's Building in San Francisco. Pat Parker reads from Jonestown & other madness: poetry (Firebrand Books, 1985), Movement in Black (Crossing Press, 1978), and The Complete Works of Pat Parker (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2016). Audre Lorde reads from Our Dead Behind Us (W.W. Norton & Company, 1986). Parker and Lorde trade reading in four alternate "sets."
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The Poetry Center presents The Black Aesthetic, including curatorial members Jamal Batts, Ryanaustin Dennis, and Leila Weefur, together with contributors Shah Noor Hussein, Christian Johnson, and Ismail Muhammad, each reading and in conversation. After an introduction to the project, the writers each read their contributions to The Black Aesthetic Season II (Wolfman Books, 2018). The readings are followed by a conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Tongo Eisen-Martin, reading and in conversation, as the first Mazza Writer in Residence for the Poetry Center. He performs poems from his newest book Heaven is All Goodbyes (City Lights Pocket Poets No. 61, 2017) and from his first book, someone's dead already (Bootstrap Press, 2015). The reading is followed by an extended conversation with the audience.
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The Poetry Center presents Wanda Coleman, performing her poetry as part of the Women Working in Literature Conference, at Fort Mason, San Francisco. Coleman reads from two books: Mad Dog Black Lady (Black Sparrow Press, 1979), and from Imagoes (Black Sparrow Press, 1983), and from new as yet uncollected works.
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The Poetry Center presents Wanda Coleman, recipient of the 2011 Poetry Center Book Award, for The World Falls Away (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). Following an introduction by Book Award judge, Brenda Coultas, Coleman reads poems from: The World Falls Away, Greatest Hits: 1966–2003 (Pudding House Publications, 2004), Ostinato Vamps (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), and Bathwater Wine (Black Sparrow Press, 1998).
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The Poetry Center presents Wanda Coleman reading from her book of poems, Mad Dog Black Lady (Black Sparrow Press,1979).