Rhymes and Revelations II: A spoken word series
Photo credit: Gettysburg College
By McKinley E Melton, Department of English
Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 7 p.m. is the first event of the Rhymes and Revelations II, Spoken Word Series. Each night will include works of art from our Gettysburg College community followed by the featured artist of the evening. The guest artist for the first evening with be Danez Smith. Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Their second collection, Don’t Call Us Dead, will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017.
Smith is also the author of two chapbooks, hands on ya knees and black movie, winner of the Button Poetry Prize. Their work has been published and featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, and Ploughshares. A 2014 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship, Smith is a two-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing second in 2014. They edit for The Offing and are a founding member of two collectives, Dark Noise and Sad Boy Supper Club. Smith’s work encompasses race, class, sexuality, faith and social justice. An accomplished slam poet, Smith moves “from page to stage” using rhythm and images to dismantle oppression and transcend boundaries.
There are three more artists featured in the series:
Mahogany L. Browne, September 28, 2016, 7 p.m., The Attic;
Nate Marshall, October 26, 2016, 7 p.m., The Attic;
Dominique Christina, November 8, 2016, 7 p.m., The Attic.
If you would like to recite your written works at any of these events or have questions, email Prof. McKinley Melton at mmelton@gettysburg.edu.
Sponsored by the Departments of English, Theater Arts, Africana Studies, Women Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Sunderman Conservatory’s Jazz Studies program, as well as the Offices of College Life, Multicultural Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, Student Activities and Greek Life, Title IX, Q House and the Events Planning and Coordinating Committee.
