Celebrating the Centenary of Gwendolyn Brooks

Celebrating the Centenary of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African American Poet Laureate

In honour of the life and work of US poet and civil rights icon Gwendolyn Brooks, The Golden Shovel Anthology includes a range of eclectic international poets, from Pulitzer and T S Eliot Prize Winners to up-and-coming names. The anthology uses a dynamic new poetic form, the Golden Shovel, created by National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes, where the last words of each line of the poem are, in order, words from a line or lines taken from a Brooks poem.

Join renowned African American poets Patricia Smith (co-editor) and Terrance Hayes (foreword) on a rare London visit to launch The Golden Shovel Anthology and to celebrate Gwendolyn Brooks’s centenary alongside an array of UK poets from the book. Hosting the evening is innovative spoken word curator Peter Kahn (co-editor), founding member of the London poetry collective Malika’s Kitchen. Many of the anthology's UK contributors will also perform their poems from the collection on the night, including Raymond Antrobus, Malika Booker, Inua Ellams, Aisling Fahey, Keith Jarrett, Anthony Joseph, Nick Makoha, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Miriam Nash, Roger Robinson, Kadija Sesay, Dorothea Smartt, Deborah Stevenson, George Szirtes and Indigo Williams.

The Golden Shovel Anthology is published by The University of Arkansas Press and is co-edited by Peter Kahn, Ravi Shankar and Patricia Smith, with a foreword by Terrance Hayes.

Enjoy food and drink purchased from the Knowledge Centre Bar from 18.00 and after the event until the Bar closes at 22.00.

A Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions events, funded by Arts Council England.

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