Tag Archives: African American

John Keene, Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective, Part 3, 12 December 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on December 12, 2013.

“Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour” with Natasha Trethewey, Major Jackson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, John Keene, Tisa Bryant, Sharan Strange, and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.

The Dark Room Collective was formed in 1988 in Boston by a group of young African American poets as a means of providing community to both established and emerging writers in the form of a reading series. This 25th Anniversary event with nearly all of the original founding members marks the end of the group’s reunion tour.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

In this episode, John Keene read from his work. Supplementary episodes from this event may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Tisa Bryant, Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective, Part 2, 12 December 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on December 12, 2013.

“Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour” with Natasha Trethewey, Major Jackson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, John Keene, Tisa Bryant, Sharan Strange, and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.

The Dark Room Collective was formed in 1988 in Boston by a group of young African American poets as a means of providing community to both established and emerging writers in the form of a reading series. This 25th Anniversary event with nearly all of the original founding members marks the end of the group’s reunion tour.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

In this episode, Tisa Bryant read from her work. Supplementary episodes from this event may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Sharan Strange, Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective, Part 1, 12 December 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on December 12, 2013.

“Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour” with Natasha Trethewey, Major Jackson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, John Keene, Tisa Bryant, Sharan Strange, and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.

The Dark Room Collective was formed in 1988 in Boston by a group of young African American poets as a means of providing community to both established and emerging writers in the form of a reading series. This 25th Anniversary event with nearly all of the original founding members marks the end of the group’s reunion tour.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

In this episode, Sharan Strange read from her work. Supplementary episodes from this event may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour, 12 December 2013 – Audio

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on December 12, 2013.

Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour

“Nothing Personal: The Dark Room Collective Reunion Tour” with Natasha Trethewey, Major Jackson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, John Keene, Tisa Bryant, Sharan Strange, and saxophonist James Brandon Lewis.

The Dark Room Collective was formed in 1988 in Boston by a group of young African American poets as a means of providing community to both established and emerging writers in the form of a reading series. This 25th Anniversary event with nearly all of the original founding members marks the end of the group’s reunion tour.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the video recordings of this event there.

Frank X Walker, Poetry, 20 October 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lannan Meeting House in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 20, 2013.

For this second Poetry Sunday event of 2013, we are delighted that Frank X Walker came in from Lexington, Kentucky to read for us. He was introduced by poet Arthur Sze.

Frank X Walker, poet laureate of Kentucky, completed his MFA in Writing at Spalding University in 2003 and is currently an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Kentucky. He has published five books of poetry, including the Lillian Smith Book Award winning collection, Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York; Kentucky Public Librarians’ Choice Award nominee Affrilachia; and Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate this Ride.

Mr. Walker received a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry in 2005. He is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, editor of America! What’s My Name? The “Other” Poets Unfurl the Flag and Eclipsing a Nappy New Millennium.

You may learn more about Frank X Walker on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Frank X Walker, Poetry, 20 October 2013 – Audio

Recorded at the Lannan Meeting House in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 20, 2013.

Frank X Walker, Poetry, 20 October 2013

For this second event of 2013, we are delighted that Frank X Walker came in from Lexington, Kentucky to read for us. He was introduced by poet Arthur Sze.

Frank X Walker, poet laureate of Kentucky, completed his MFA in Writing at Spalding University in 2003 and is currently an associate professor in the English Department at the University of Kentucky. He has published five books of poetry, including the Lillian Smith Book Award winning collection, Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York; Kentucky Public Librarians’ Choice Award nominee Affrilachia; and Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate this Ride.

Mr. Walker received a Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry in 2005. He is a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets, editor of America! What’s My Name? The “Other” Poets Unfurl the Flag and Eclipsing a Nappy New Millennium.

You may learn more about Frank X Walker on the Lannan website; you may also view the video recording of this event there.

Jamaica Kincaid with Robert Faggen, Reading, 16 October 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 16, 2013.

Jamaica Kincaid, whose work has been called loosely auto-biographical, has said, “Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn’t admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence.” Her recent novel, See Now Then, chronicles the death of a marriage like a beautiful elegy, where Mr. and Mrs. Sweet’s final years together are anything but. Kincaid immigrated from the West Indies at 17 to New York, where she eventually joined the staff of The New Yorker.

Her books explore themes of colonialism and its legacy, and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. She is the author of 19 books including the novel The Autobiography of My Mother and the memoir Among Flowers, chronicling her journey deep into the mountains of Nepal.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

In this episode she is introduced by Robert Faggen and then reads from her work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Jamaica Kincaid with Robert Faggen, Conversation, 16 October 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 16, 2013.

Jamaica Kincaid, whose work has been called loosely auto-biographical, has said, “Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn’t admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence.” Her recent novel, See Now Then, chronicles the death of a marriage like a beautiful elegy, where Mr. and Mrs. Sweet’s final years together are anything but. Kincaid immigrated from the West Indies at 17 to New York, where she eventually joined the staff of The New Yorker.

Her books explore themes of colonialism and its legacy, and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. She is the author of 19 books including the novel The Autobiography of My Mother and the memoir Among Flowers, chronicling her journey deep into the mountains of Nepal.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

In this episode she is introduced by Robert Faggen and then reads from her work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to the audio recording of this event there.

Jamaica Kincaid with Robert Faggen, 16 October 2013 – Audio

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 16, 2013.

Jamaica Kincaid with Robert Faggen

Jamaica Kincaid, whose work has been called loosely auto-biographical, has said, “Everything I say is true, and everything I say is not true. You couldn’t admit any of it to a court of law. It would not be good evidence.” Her recent novel, See Now Then, chronicles the death of a marriage like a beautiful elegy, where Mr. and Mrs. Sweet’s final years together are anything but. Kincaid immigrated from the West Indies at 17 to New York, where she eventually joined the staff of The New Yorker.

Her books explore themes of colonialism and its legacy, and the complex relationships between mothers and daughters. She is the author of 19 books including the novel The Autobiography of My Mother and the memoir Among Flowers, chronicling her journey deep into the mountains of Nepal.

This event was part of the Lannan Literary series.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the video recordings of this event there.

Isabel Wilkerson with John Stauffer, Conversation, 10 April 2013 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 10, 2013.

[The audio and video media from this event are no longer available.]

Isabel Wilkerson is the author of The Warmth of Other Suns, an epic story of the Great Migration, chronicling the journey of over six million black Americans from the South who migrated north and west between World War I and the 1970s. Inspired by her own parents’ migration, she devoted 15 years to the research and writing of the book, interviewing more than 1,200 people along the way. Wilkerson is a former national correspondent and bureau chief at The New York Times.

In this episode she is joined in conversation with John Stauffer. The companion reading may be found here.

Additional photos of this event are available on Flickr.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to audio recordings of this event there.