National Book-Award winner and prominent Black poet Nikky Finney will lead virtual poetry workshops and events on April 6 and 7.
The events include a live reading, a conversation with guest interviewer Clemonce Heard and an open mic.
Every April, OCU hosts a nationally recognized poet as part of the Annual Thatcher Hoffman Smith Poetry Series. This yearly series originally began with professor emeritus Harbour Winn and took off when a generous donor interested in promoting film and poetry committed to making it a yearly occurrence in an effort to explore how these mediums help people understand themselves and others.
Dr. Tracy Floreani, professor of English, said this series is something she looks forward to each year because it brings a fresh and exciting new perspective, along with its lessons and joys.
“It usually turns out that we pick exciting and generous people who makes us think about how language effects our perception of the world. Great poets make us rethink the way we see situations,” Floreani said.
An email sent to the campus community by Rod Jones, associate director of communications, stated Finney is best known for her depictions of the African American experience which she describes as “the graciousness of Black family perseverance, the truth of history, the grace and necessity of memory, as well as the titanic loss of habitat for all things precious and wild.”
Finney was also a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets Collective for African American Poets and has won several prizes including the PEN American Open Book Award and the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Award for the Arts in South Carolina. Some of her well-known poetry collections are “On Wings Made of Gauze” and “The World Is Round.”
As a professor whose research specialty is in multiethnic American literature, Floreani said she feels it is especially important to highlight artists of color, as the variety of voices in the American creative scene are profound and deeply thoughtful.
“The timing is incidental, but in her most recent work, it includes a lot of poems and reflections on the violence against unarmed Black citizens. Her perspective is so timely,” Floreani said.
In considering what makes poetry so special to her, Floreani said its nature is freer and more flexible than other mediums because its greatest purpose is to fulfill rather than to sell.
“It’s not as market-driven. It’s an especially great venue for diverse perspectives,” Floreani said. “One of my wishes is for any student or faculty member to try this out. College is a time for stepping out of the comfort zone to explore. I hope all that go gain a new inspiration of thinking about the power of poetry.”
Olivia Fosson, music theater sophomore, said she is looking forward to the insight and nuanced angle Finney brings to the world of writing.
“I’m most excited about hearing her unique path. I think with lots of writers, we see that their ideas have taken journeys of their own,” Fosson said. “Getting to hear the arc of where she started, to how her thought process may have shifted or changed as she’s grown would be awesome.”
The intersectionality of Finney’s experience as a Black woman who is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community is something Fosson said she values deeply.
“The view from her own identity is one that I think is so unique and yet still universal,” Fosson said. “I read that her home community was really unique, too, plus the fact that she’s a queer artist brings a whole other layer.”
Fosson said she hopes to see more poets, musicians and artists of different backgrounds represented in future events at OCU because their stories and points of view can bring a richer and more comprehensive view of the world.
“Writing is so personal and very much an outlet for so many of us. It’s beautiful when people can put their thoughts to words and share those with others, powerful,” Fosson said.
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