The Boston Public Library hosts The Living Archive: African American Poetry in this exploration of Black identity articulated by contemporary African American poets. The panel (and audience) discussions with poets and writers will explore the significance of African American literature, the ways in which literature has examined and illuminated Black identities, the connection between spoken and written word, language styles and culture in Black poetry, and the relationship between writers of the past and the present.
They panel includes:
NICOLE TEREZ DUTTON: Poet, educator, inaugural Poet Laureate of Somerville, and editor at The Baffler and Transition Magazine
BARBARA LEWIS: Writer, Associate Professor of English and Director, William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black History and Culture, University of Massachusetts, Boston
IFEANYI MENKITI: Poet, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Wellesley College, and owner of the Grolier Poetry Book Shop
NIKÒL PAYEN: Writer, Assistant Professor of English, Quinsigamond Community College, and activist
ENZO SILON SURIN: Poet, advocate, publisher of Central Square Press, and Associate Professor of English, Bunker Hill Community College
This free event will be moderated by Boston Poet Laureate, DANIELLE LEGROS GEORGES.
Certain books were “banned in Boston” at least as far back as 1651, when one William Pynchon wrote a book criticizing Puritanism.