Red Hen Press in Pasadena, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will present Victoria Chang and Afaa Weaver on the NEH Reading and Conversation series Wednesday, April 28, 4 to 5 p.m.
This unique virtual lecture and conversation series is focused on the history and future of formalism in poetry. The series has a unifying thread to explore formalist poetry and the role it plays in our culture as poetry continues to evolve.
The series seeks to answer questions such as, “Why do we as readers and listeners to poetry continue to love the sound and rhythm of formal poetry?” and “Why does it create a kind of heartbeat for us?”
This series is organized with a movement from the traditional to the contemporary, bringing in diverse experiences and voices. Speakers will discuss poetry’s formal foundation and how teaching these building blocks allows for growth.
“In order for young people to do experimental poetry, they have to know what rules to break; to play with form, they have to know what form is,” Red Hen said about the series. “In poetry, traditional forms are the way we learn technique. If poetry were dance, form is ballet.”
Victoria Chang is a celebrated poet, whose books have earned such honors as a PEN Center Literary Award and a California Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, POETRY, Believer, New England Review, VQR, The Nation, New Republic, The Washington Post, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere.
She is a contributing editor of the literary journal Copper Nickel. She lives in Southern California with her family and her wiener dog, Mustard. “Is Mommy…?” is her first book for children.
Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of numerous poetry collections, including “The Plum Flower Dance,” “Poems 1985 to 2005,” “The Government of Nature,” winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and “City of Eternal Spring,” winner of the Phyllis Wheatley Book Award.
He is the recipient of an NEA fellowship, a Pew fellowship, four Pushcart Prizes, and a Fulbright scholar appointment, among other honors. In 1998, he became the first Elder of the Cave Canem Foundation.
In 2017, Weaver retired from Simmons College in Boston, where he held the Alumnae Chair in English for 20 years.
The conversation will be moderated by Kate Gale, Managing Editor of Red Hen Press and a member of Pasadena Literary Alliance.
The series is streamed live on www.RedHen.org, on Facebook, www.facebook.com/redhenpress, and on YouTube, www.youtube.com/
For more information, call (626) 356-4760.
