Programs A Reading and Conversation with The African Poetry Book Fund
Details
- Date:
Oct 12, 2023 - End Date:
Oct 12, 2023 - Time:
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM - Location:
Hybrid Program
The Africa Center at Aliko Dangote Hall
1280 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10029 United States (map)
Join us on Thursday, October 12th from 6:30PM – 8PM for a conversation & reading celebrating the African Poetry Book Fund’s (APBF) latest collection, Tisa: New-Generation African Poets, A Chapbook Box Set. This program will include readings from featured poets and a moderated conversation with Dr. Kwame Dawes, co-Founder of the APBF.
The stunning limited-edition box set is a project started by the APBF in 2014 to ensure the publication of up to a dozen chapbooks every year by African poets. The series seeks to identify the best poetry written by African poets working today, and it is especially interested in featuring poets who have not yet published their first full-length book of poetry.
The eleven poets included in this box set are: Samuel A. Adeyemi (Nigeria), Nikitta Dede Adjirakor (Ghana), O-Jeremiah Agbaakin (Nigeria), Rabha Ashry (Egypt), Jakky Bankong-Obi (Nigeria), Hazem Fahmy (Egypt), Alain Jules Hirwa (Rwanda), Jay Kophy (Ghana), Tawiah Naana Akua Mensah (Ghana), Phodiso Modirwa (Botswana), and Nneoma Veronica Nwogu (Nigeria).
KWAME DAWES is the author of numerous books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection UnHistory, was co-written with John Kinsella (Peepal Tree Press, UK 2022). Dawes is a George W.Holmes University Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. He teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022 Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica.
