Monday, February 9, 4:00-5:00 pm, Highlands Room (Festival) Kamilah Aisha Moon Moon’s first book She Has a Name, tells the story of a young woman with autism from multiple perspectives. The speakers in these poems—sisters, mother, father, teacher—pursue answers to questions science can’t yet answer: “Autism, the one-drop rule for minds / we strain to understand, the catch-all…” While seeking to understand, the speakers yearn to protect the young woman—“The last thing / I ever wanted was to let her / down,” says the Father. Whether protector or questioner, each voice strives to understand what autism means to his or her own life. You can read more about Moon here (jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/02/09-kamilah-aisha-moon.shtml) Thursday, March 19 4:00-5:00pm, Duke Hall Gallery Rachel Eliza Griffith The speakers in Rachel Eliza Griffith’s Mule and Pear echo and respond to some of the most important black women characters of the past 100 years. The poems give voice to a cross-generational dialogue that includes protagonists from American classics like Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929), Jones’s Eva’s Man (1976), Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982), Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), as well as from lesser-known American texts like Valerie Martin’s historical novel Property (2004), and contemporary African classics-in-process like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). You can see a trailer for the book here: vimeo/27470112 And you can read more about Griffith here: jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/03/19-rachel-eliza-griffiths.shtml Wednesday April 1, 4:00-5:00pm, Taylor 405 Ross Gay As a founding board member of the Community Orchard of Bloomington, IN, Gay is deeply dedicated to sustainability—something that comes through in his abundant and ecstatic poetry. His third collection of poetry A Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude focuses on the themes of planting and gardening. “This is a book that studies the wisdom of the garden and orchard,” he said, “those places where all—death, sorrow, loss—is converted into what might, with patience, nourish us.” This book is not due out until mid-January, but I requested a galley if anyone wants to take a look at it. His previous collection Bringing the Shovel Down is fantastic as well. You can read more about Ross here: jmu.edu/events/furiousflower/2015/04/01-ross-gay.shtml Here he is doing a beautiful gloss of Toi Derricott’s poem “The Undertaker’s Daughter.” https://youtube/watch?v=fz6jV4FnlE4
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 20:02:04 +0000
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