Recipient of the Kate Tufts Poetry Award and a 2016 Hopwood Awardee, Danez Smith is coming to Salt Lake Community College to breathe his thought-provoking work into Salt Lake City. Smith teaches with InsideOut Detroit, is a 2014 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum and recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. The performance is on September 22 at 7 p.m. and is part of Salt Lake Community College’s Reading Series Program.
Smith was featured in American Academy of Poet’s Emerging Writers Series by National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith. Smith’s website states, “Like her, he bridges the poetics of the stage to that of the page. Danez’s work transcends arbitrary boundaries to present work that is gripping, dismantling of oppression constructs and striking on the human heart. Often centered around intersections of race, class, sexuality, faith and social justice, Danez uses rhythm, fierce raw power and image to reimagine the world as he takes it apart in his work.”
Salt Lake Community College is an accredited college in the Salt Lake valley that focuses on diversity and student-driven learning. Through their Reading Series Program, the college hosts a diverse slate of writers from across the United States. The series gives students the opportunity to meet and have discussions with published writers, so they can learn for their own work.
The event will be held in the Atrium at SLCC’s South City Campus, 1575 S. State Street, Salt Lake City. For more information, click here.
-Brieanna Olds
