Black Poetry Day Features A. Van Jordan Oct. 19
PLATTSBURGH, NY __ This year's annual Black Poetry Day at the State University of
New York College at Plattsburgh features a talk by poet A. Van Jordan on Tuesday,
Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hyman and Frances Krinovitz Recital Hall in Hawkins Hall.
This event is free and open to all.
A. Van Jordan, born in Akron, Ohio, received his Master's of Fine Arts from the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. His first book, "Rise," won the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award and was a selection of the Academy of American Poets book club.
In his book, "M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A," he wrote a suite of poems that imagine the life of MacNolia Cox, the first black finalist in the National Spelling Bee Competition. In this book, Jordan uses a variety of forms and voices to portray Cox's life. The poems draw on blues, jazz and prose stylings to depict racism and the Depression, two elements that framed life in 1936.
Jordan is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Grennsboro.
Black Poetry Day is sponsored by College Auxiliary Services, Office of the President, Student Activities/Multicultural Affairs, the Office of the Dean of Arts and Science, the campus chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., the Writer's Institute of New York and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission. In addition, this event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant received from the New York State Council on the Arts.
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