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AFFRILACHIAN POETS BUS
TOUR 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RE: The first leg of the Affrilachian Poets spring
tour will roll through central Appalachia.
After a kick-off reading at the
Kentucky Folk Arts Center in Morehead on March 2nd,
a touring group of Affrilachian Poets will roll through
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia with a
series of daily literary readings, creative writing and
performance workshops, a theatrical/dance production, and
film screenings at community centers, colleges,
universities, libraries, and high schools, as part of the
collective’s mission “to help make the invisible
visible.”
The Lexington, KY based
writing group has slowly established a regional and national
presence with their collective publishing efforts,
accumulated awards and reputations as accomplished teaching
artists at some of the nation’s most notable institutions
and writing programs. Their efforts reached a significant
milestone in 2006 when the word Affrilachian became an entry
in the Oxford American Dictionary. That definition includes
the following:
[as modifier
] Affrilachian poets.
The poets, who will open
the year with a reading at the Chicago Art Institute along
side special guest Patricia Smith during the AWP
(Association of Writers and Writing Programs) annual
conference in February, will continue their spring tour with
March stops at Northern Kentucky University in Highland
Heights, KY; Madison County Library in Jackson, TN;
University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN; Jefferson Center
in Roanoke, VA; Western Virginia Community College,
Lynchburg High School in Lynchburg, VA; Ferrum College in
Ferrum, VA; the Bluegrass Kitchen in Charleston, WV;
Marshall University in Huntington, WV; and Berea College in
Berea, KY; followed by a second leg of the tour in April
with stops at Transylvania University, the Ethridge Knight
Literary Festival, B.E.A.T.S Hip Hop Expo at Ohio
University, and Kentucky Center for the Arts.
Members taking part in the
various readings and events include Crystal Wilkinson, Frank
X Walker, Ricardo Nazario-Colon, Kelly Norman Ellis,
Parneshia Jones, Mitchell L.H. Douglas, Keith Wilson, Bianca
Spriggs-Floyd, Tania James, Crystal Good-Nazario, Norman
Jordan and Amanda Johnston. The events will also be an
opportunity to promote new books by members Douglas and
James as well the new publication, PLUCK! The journal of
Affrilachian Arts and Culture.
www.pluckonline.com
For more information about
the tour call Frank X Walker at 513-375-7221 or email
Affrilachia@aol.com
MARCH
2
Morehead State
University
Morehead, KY
Kentucky Folk Arts Center
102 W. First Street
5-6
Northern Kentucky University
Highland, Hts, KY
When Winter Come: The Choreopoem
Fine Arts Building, Strauss Theatre, 8:00 PM
7
Madison County
Library
Jackson, TN
433 E. Lafayette St., 2:00 PM
9
University of
Tennessee
Knoxville, TN
Black Cultural Center, 3:30PM
10
Jefferson
Center
Roanoke, VA
541 Luck Ave.
10
Virginia Western Community
College
Roanoke, VA
3093 Colonial Ave.
11
E.C. Glass High
School
Lynchburg, VA
2111 Memorial Ave.
11
Ferrum
College Ferrum,
VA
215 Ferrum Mountain Road, Student Union
12
Capital Market,
noon Charleston,
WV
12
Tricky Fish
Charleston, WV
13
Marshall
University
Huntington, WV
14
14th Street Community
Center
Portsmouth, OH
15
Berea
College Berea,
KY
29
Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center Sunday
Englewood, NJ
APRIL
11 Ohio University
Athens, OH
17
Transylvania
University
Lexington, KY
23 Etheridge Knight Festival
Indianapolis, IN
24
Kentucky Writers Day at NKU
Highland Hts, KY
24
Kentucky Center GSA Fund
Raiser
Louisville, KY
March
12, Charleston West Virginia
8:00 Tricky Fish Reading http://www.trickyfish.net/
School appearances: 2:30 Horace Mann Middle School, 3:30
Roosevelt Community Center, 5:30 Charleston Job Corps Sister
Circle
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