CLA Presents: Tyehimba Jess & Harmony Holiday Poetry Reading

Description

On November 7, 2019 the Center for Literary Arts of San José will present Tyehimba Jess and Harmony Holiday at Forager at 7PM for a night of performance poetry and conversation with Tshaka Campbell. Copies of Jess and Holiday’s latest poetry collections will be available for purchase, and a book-signing opportunity will follow the performance.

Tyehimba Jess is the author of two books of poetry, Leadbelly and Olio, the latter of which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, The Midland Society Author’s Award in Poetry, and received an Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Jess is a Professor of English at College of Staten Island.

Harmony Holiday is the author of Negro League Baseball (winner of the Motherwell Prize), Go Find Your Father/ A Famous Blues, and most recently Hollywood Forever. She is the founder of Mythscience, an arts collective devoted to cross-disciplinary work that helps artists re-engage with their bodies and the physical world, and the Afrosonics archive of jazz and every day diaspora poetics. She worked on SOS, the selected poems of Amiri Baraka, transcribing all of his poetry recorded with jazz that had yet to be released in print and exists mostly on out-of-print records. Harmony studied rhetoric and at UC Berkeley and taught for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. She received her MFA from Columbia University and has been awarded a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and a NYFA fellowship. She is currently working on a biography of jazz singer Abbey Lincoln.

Originally from England, Tshaka moved to the United States when he was 10. Performance accolades include being a member of the 2004 Nuyorican Poetry National Poetry Slam Team and the 2006 Hollywood National Champion Slam Poetry team. He also earned the Grand Champion title at the 2005 San Francisco Championship and the 2007 Hollywood Championship. Tshaka has toured internationally and has been featured at theaters from the legendary Apollo Theatre in New York to the O2 arena in London. He also conducts lectures and workshops in creative writing. Tshaka has authored three books entitled Tarman, Muted Whispers, and Tunnel Vision. He has 3 albums. His most recent release Skin Vol. 1 is currently available for download. Tshaka has collaborated on a number of musical projects, including national commercials.

The reading includes an on-stage interview, audience Q&A, book sale, and signing. This event is free and open to the public.

More Info

Link

http://litart.org

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(408) 924-4449

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