Poets Amiri Baraka, Honoree Jeffers to Give Reading at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The PUNCH Writer’s Project will present an evening with poets Amiri Baraka and Honoree Jeffers Thursday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. in the Ferguson Theater at The University of Alabama.

The poetry reading will be followed by a book signing and reception. The event is free and open to the public.

Amiri Baraka is the author of more than 40 books of essays, poetry, plays, music history and criticism. His honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, the Langston Hughes Award from the City College of New York, and a lifetime achievement award from the Before Columbus Foundation. He has been a professor of Africana Studies at Stony Brook since 1985 and he co-directs Kimako’s Blues People, a community arts space.

Honoree Jeffers is a native Alabamian and UA graduate. She has written two books of poetry, “The Gospel of Barbecue” (Kent State University, 2000), winner of the Stan and Tom Wick Prize for poetry, and “Outlandish Blues” (Wesleyan University Press, 2003). She is professor of English at Oklahoma University.

The PUNCH Writer’s Project is a graduate student organization that brings innovative writers to campus to share ideas with students in workshops, readings and performances. Sponsors for the event also include New College, Creative Campus, Housing and Residential Communities, Women’s Resource Center, College of Arts and Sciences and the English department.