On July 17th, City of Asylum Pittsburgh presented Writers in the Garden, an annual celebration of local poets and the Northside community. Curated by Jim Daniels, this year’s featured writers were Craig Bernier, Leslie Ann McIlroy, Dave Newman, Wendy Paff, and Jamar Thrasher.
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Professor and acclaimed poet Patricia Smith captivated the Alphabet City tent audience this year at Cave Canem. Today, we present a video of Smith delivering her poem “Where Black Begins and Don’t End”.
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Cave Canem faculty member Tim Seibles engaged Pittsburgh audiences in June at the Alphabet City tent with several of his poems. Today, we present you with a video of Tim reading his poem “Allison Wolf”.
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Rachida Madani sees herself as “a poet armed with words to bear witness and revolt against injustice, social inequality, women’s conditions in a patriarchal society, men’s superiority complex, despotism, and a lack of freedom of expression.” In this edition of The Writer’s Block, Rachida spoke about language, womanhood, and reinventing Scheherazade.
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On March 7, 2014, Moniro Ravanipour read from her work-in-progress and subsequently answered questions posed by audience members at the City of Asylum. In this Q&A on Sampsonia Way, Moniro explains her writing style, the journey to America, her thoughts on the “sound” of English vs. Farsi, and she divulges her secret to publishing in Iran.
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January 31, 2014 marked the launch of Sampsonia Way’s first anthology Generation Zero: An Anthology of New Cuban Fiction. In this video, Pittsburgh’s Josh Raulerson (WESA) as well as American novelist and college professor Angie Cruz read from the new release.
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In this segment of The Writer’s Block, David Harris-Gershon discusses his writing process, the consequences he faced for publishing his memoir, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, and writer’s responsibilities towards society.
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On January 9, 2014Amiri Baraka, poet, playwright and activist, passed away at the age of 79. A leading figure of the Black Arts movement, today we remember Baraka by sharing an interview Sampsonia Way published in 2011, after he came to read with Cave Canem at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.
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In this exclusive interview, Tienchi Martin-Liao sits down with her long-time friend and colleague, the celebrated exiled writer Liao Yiwu. They talked about literature, emigration, and politics. If they had tried to have this conversation in China, it could have been considered illegal.
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In this segment of The Writer’s Block, French author Laurent Binet discusses his relationship with his editors, the risks of mixing history and fiction, and why he doesn’t make a distinction between author and narrator.
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