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Savannah State celebrates National Poetry Month with festival
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Savannah State University
2009 Poetry Festival Schedule


April 3: Sweet informal talk, Rewrite Connection in Whiting Hall 125 at noon, and formal reading in Gordon Library Art Gallery, 3 p.m.

April 3: WHCJ-FM radio program featuring Sweet and Chad Faries reading poetry together, 4 p.m.

April 5:  The Vocal Arts Ensemble of Savannah presents a concert featuring local singers: Diane Ricks, Brenda Rucker, Alysa Smith and Heidi Bindhammer, Kennedy Auditorium, 3 p.m.

April 7: Student and Faculty Reading Series featuring faculty members Gwen Hale and Catherine Rogers with students Val Howard, Cordarian Robertson and Jada Holsey, Adams Hall, 7 p.m.

April 8: Estuary Literary Magazine will host an open reading featuring poets published in the current issue, Adams Hall, 7 p.m.

April 9: Nagueyalti Warren will read her poetry at The Book Lady, 6 E. Liberty St., 8 p.m.

April 10:  Warren will have an informal talk in the Rewrite Connection, located in Whiting Hall room 125 at noon, followed by a formal reading in Gordon Library Art Gallery, 3 p.m.

April 10:  Signature Creative Writing Club presents “Poets Point,” an open mic session with Warren as the special guest, King-Frazier Student Center ballroom, 7 p.m.

April 17: Lita Hooper will have an informal talk in the Rewrite Connection, located in Whiting Hall room 125 at noon, followed by a formal reading in Gordon Library Art Gallery, 3 p.m.

April 17: Hooper will read at The Book Lady, 6 E. Liberty St., 7p.m.

April 18: Hooper will read and conduct a workshop as part of the SSU Fine Arts Festival, Kennedy Building auditorium, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

All Warren events sponsored by the Georgia Council for the Arts and a LEGG grant.

SAVANNAH—The Savannah State University (SSU) Department of Fine Arts will present the SSU Poetry Festival in observance of April as National Poetry Month. Poets Denise Sweet, Nagueyalti Warren and Lita Hooper will visit the campus as part of the celebration, which will also include readings by faculty and students.

An Anishinaabe poet (White Earth), Sweet is professor of Humanistic Studies and chair of the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Sweet’s first Savannah appearance will be part of Jazz and Blues on the Marsh on April 2, 5-8 p.m., on the King-Frazier Student Center terrace, followed by visits to various campus locations on April 3.

She has presented nearly 100 public readings in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Guatemala, and has served as a poet-in-residence in public and tribal schools as well as at Grand Marais Art Colony in northern Minnesota and at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Named Wisconsin Poet Laureate for 2004-08, Sweet is working on a third collection of poems titled “As Those With Faith Will Do.”

Nagueyalti Warren’s campus visit on April 10 will include a poetry reading at 3 p.m. in the Gordon Library Art Gallery, followed by an open mic session with the Signature Creative Writing Club at 7 p.m. in the King-Frazier Student Center ballroom. Senior lecturer and director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of African-American Studies at Emory University, Warren’s recent publications include an edited anthology of poetry by black women from throughout the diaspora titled “Temba Tupu (Walking Naked) Africana Women’s Poetic Self-Portrait” published by Africa World Press, and “Margaret,” a persona poem, winner of the 2008 Naomi Madgett Long Poetry Award.  

Warren’s visit is sponsored by the Georgia Council for the Arts and a LEGG Grant.

The festival will conclude on April 17 with Lita Hooper, an associate professor of English at Georgia Perimeter College, reading and conducting a workshop from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the Kennedy Building auditorium.

A poet, photographer and film producer, Hooper’s work has appeared in several anthologies including “Crux: Conversations in Words and Images from South Africa to South USA” and “The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South.” She is the author of two chapter books, “Legacy and The Journal of Sojourner Truth,” as well as a critical biography, “Art of Work: The Art and Work of Haki Madhubuti.”

In 2007, her poem “Love Worn” was selected for the American Life in Poetry Series, which has a circulation of one million readers.

Established in 1890, Savannah State University is on the move to become the best value-added university in the nation.  The university’s 3,450 students are enrolled in 23 undergraduate and five graduate programs in three colleges: Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Business Administration and Sciences and Technology.