LitFest 2024: Black Poetry in Appalachia with Frank X Walker

Name: LitFest 2024: Black Poetry in Appalachia with Frank X Walker
Start: 2024-09-29T14:00:00-04:00
Location: 40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, Pennsylvania 15212

Schedule

Sun Sep 29 2024 at 02:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

40 W. North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, Pennsylvania 15212 | Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh is the “Paris of Appalachia,” but what does it mean to be an Appalachian writer?
Frank X Walker, a faculty member of Cave Canem and a former Kentucky Poet Laureate, returns to the Alphabet City stage to discuss his work and life as an “Affrilachian” Poet. Frank is the author of the pathbreaking book of poems Affrilachia (2000), a classic of Appalachian and African-American literature. Frank created the word “Affrilachia” to help make visible the experience of African-Americans living in the rural and Appalachian South. The book is widely used in classrooms and is one of the foundational works of the Affrilachian Poets, a community of writers offering fresh ways to think about diversity in the Appalachian region and beyond.
At LitFest, Frank will be sharing poems from his forthcoming book, Load in Nine Times, a stirring new poetry collection in which he reimagines the experiences of Black Civil War soldiers―including his own ancestors―who enlisted in the Union Army in exchange for emancipation.
Moving chronologically from antebellum Kentucky through Reconstruction, Walker braids the voices of the United States Colored Troops with their family members, as well as slaveowners and prominent historical figures, including Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and Margaret Garner, into a wide-ranging series of “persona poems” imbued with atmospheric imagery and brimming with indomitable spirit. Evoking the pride and perseverance of formerly enslaved General Charles Young, Walker hums: I, am America’s promise, my mother’s song, / and the reason my father had every right to dream.
You can pre-order your own copy of Frank’s book, Load in Nine Times, at City of Asylum Bookstore today OR purchase a copy at Frank’s program (two full days before its official release!)