Cave Canem at City Lights

Description

City Lights and Cave Canem are pleased to announce the release of

The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South

published by University of Georgia Press

Nathaniel Mackey, Camille Dungy, Cynthia Parker-Ohene, and Kevin Simmonds will be reading to celebrate the release of this important anthology.

The Ringing Ear collects the work of 103 established and emerging African American poets. It is the first anthology of its kind focusing on what Marilyn Hacker has called "'the magnetic South,' vexed and compelling as it is in the Black American imagination." She writes: "Narrative, lyric surreal, or hyper-real, using meter, multiple voices, verbal deconstruction, informed by jazz blues, by history learned in books and told in kitchens, this book pieces together a mosaic of American life and of the poem’s possibilities.

"The South: to render all that it means to an African American takes someone with acutely tuned senses, someone with a patience, a passion even, for the region's history and contradictions. It takes a poet. In this new anthology, more than one hundred contemporary black poets laugh at and cry about, pray for and curse, flee and return to—the South.

"The Ringing Ear reminds us that sometimes regionalism does not mean provincialism or myopia, but instead offers an opportunity for people to find their true songs and sing them with the assurance and power of knowing. There is something strikingly expansive about the range and complexity of the poems collected in this anthology. This is a distinctly southern book, a distinctly black book, a distinctly American book-it is all these things and more."
—Kwame Dawes, author of Wisteria: Twilight Poems from the Swamp Country

About Cave Canem:

In 1996 poets and teachers Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady began a weeklong summer workshop/retreat designed to counter the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in writers' workshops and literary programs. From the beginning, Cave Canem has offered a safe haven for black poets—whether schooled in MFA programs or poetry slams—to come together to work on their craft and engage others in critical debate.

Beginning as an all-volunteer effort in 1996, Cave Canem has moved swiftly to become a non-profit organization with a full-time staff and an active board, funded through individual donations and foundation and government grants.

The program has expanded from a summer retreat to include regional workshops, a a first book prize, annual anthologies, readings, and events in major cities around the United States. Cave Canem is a national community of emerging and established poets, a family of writers who create, publish, perform, teach, study poetry, and support each others' work.

More Info

Link

http://www.citylights.com/info/?fa=event&event_id=278

Call

(415) 362-8193 (Box Office)