March 31: Symposium on Race & Poetry

Program Race & Poetry Symposium: Writing the American Landscape

Saturday, March 31 2007
Heimbold Visual Arts Center
Sarah Lawrence College
Attendance is free

For more information, visit Sarah Lawrence College's Press Release about the event.

12:00 - 1:00 Reading with Ravi Shankar, Patricia Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Edwin Torres

1:15 - 2:15 Panel on “Excavating the Muse” with Sean Thomas Dougherty, Eric Gamalinda, Cathy Park Hong, Vijay Seshadri, Tracy K. Smith, Edwin Torres

2:30 - 3:30 Reading with Sean Thomas Dougherty, Eric Gamalinda, Paisley Rekdal, Roger Sedarat

3:45 - 4:45 Panel on “A Public Presence” with Thomas Sayers Ellis, Paisley Rekdal, Roger Sedarat, Ravi Shankar, Patricia Smith

5:00 - 5:45 Breakout sessions led by Sarah Lawrence faculty

6:00 Dinner break

8:00 - 9:30 Rapid-fire reading featuring guest poets and Sarah Lawrence faculty

Background on the guest poets:

Sean Thomas Dougherty is the author of nine books, including the forthcoming Broken Hallelujahs (BOA Editions).

Eric Gamalinda is the author of Zero Gravity, which won the Asian American Literary Award in 2000. His new poetry colletion, Amigo Warfare, is due out this spring.

Paisley Rekdal is the author of The Invention of the Kaleidoscope, A Crash of Rhinos, and Six Girls Without Pants, and a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee.

Roger Sedarat's family immigrated to America from Shiraz, Iran. His poetry manuscript, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, will be published in 2008 with Ohio University Press.

Ravi Shankar is the author of Instrumentality and founding editor of the international online journal of the arts, www.drunkenboat.com. He is currently co-editing an anthology of contemporary Asian and Arab poetry (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008).

Patricia Smith is the author of four books of poetry, including The Teahouse of the Almighty, winner of the National Poetry Series. She is the author of Africans in America, a companion book to the PBS special of the same name.

Tracy K. Smith is the author of The Body's Question, winner of the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and published in 2003 (Graywolf Press). Her second collection, Duende, received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets and will be published by Graywolf in spring 2007.

Edwin Torres is the author of a number of books, including The All-Union Day of the Shock Worker (Roof Books) and Fractured Humorous, and Holy Kid, a CD released by Kill Rock Stars.