The Poem and Social Space: AAWW at Facing Race
Ken Chen, Lupe Mendez, Janine Joseph, Randall Horton
The Poem and Social Space: AAWW at Facing Race

The poem can mobilize us in a social space, the poet Myung Mi Kim tells us. Taking that cue, how do we consciously use poetry to that end? How do we embed writing into the social justice process, and have it enter new spaces?Presenters will begin with a discussion of their work combining writing and social justice, followed by breakout workshops led by each writer, concluding with a reading from each group. Each presenter has experience teaching and discussing poetry within both traditional literary spaces and outside, from youth programs to prisons.

Join AAWW at the Facing Race conference, the largest multiracial, inter-generational gathering for organizers, educators, creatives and other leaders.

Ken Chen is the Executive Director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He is the recipient of the Yale Younger Poets Award, the oldest annual literary award in America, for his book Juvenilia, which was selected by the poet Louise Glück. An NEA, NYFA and Bread Loaf fellow, Chen co-founded the cultural website Arts & Letters Daily.

Originally from Galveston,TX, Lupe Mendez works within the Librotraficante Movement to advocate for literacy/literature and organize creative writing workshops that are open to the public. He is a CantoMundo Fellow and an ONLINE MFA candidate in Creative Writing with the University of Texas @ El Paso. His most recent work has been published in Flash (UK), Revista Síncope (MEX), La Noria, Nakum, and Huizache.

Janine Joseph’s debut collection, Driving Without a License, winner of the 2014 Kundiman Poetry Prize, is forthcoming in spring 2016 from Alice James Books. Her poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from The Journal, Kenyon Review Online, Best New Poets, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from New York University and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Janine is an Assistant Professor of English at Weber State University.

Randall Horton is the recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Bea Gonzalez Poetry Award and most recently a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Literature. Randall is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of the Affrilachian Poets and a member of The Symphony: The House that Etheridge Built. Randall is Assistant Professor of English at the University of New Haven. An excerpt from his memoir titled Roxbury is published by Kattywompus Press. Triquarterly/Northwestern University Press in the publisher of his latest poetry collection Pitch Dark Anarchy.

The Poem and Social Space: AAWW at Facing Race

Ken Chen, Lupe Mendez, Janine Joseph, Randall Horton
Friday, November 14, 2014
1:45 PM
$0.00
Hilton Anatole
2201 N Stemmons Fwy
Dallas TX
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May 2 7:00 PM
AAWW & Kundiman Present: Emerging Writers in Conversation
Join AAWW and Kundiman in-person and online for a conversation between emerging writers Hannah Bae, Jen Lue, Gina Chung, and Rajat Singh!