From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Mar 17 2009 - 12:48:28 EST
March 17, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Smith to Host Poet Aracelis Girmay
NORTHAMPTON, Mass.—Smith College will present a reading by new poet Aracelis
Girmay at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 31, in Stoddard Hall Auditorium. The
event is free and open to the public.
A writer of fiction and nonfiction in addition to being a poet, Girmay
received her Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and works
as a writer in public schools with the Community-Word Project and Teachers &
Writers Collaborative. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and has published poems in
“Ploughshares,” “Callaloo” and the “Indiana Review,” among other journals,
citing among her influences Frieda Kahlo, Martín Espada, Toni Morrison,
Minnie Ripperton, Walt Whitman, Ralph Ellison, Pablo Neruda and Gwendolyn
Brooks.
Described as “the real deal” by the co-editor of “Latino Boom,” Girmay is a
powerful and inventive poet, writer and educator who is not afraid to take
on any subject, including rape and genocide, and who brings to her poems not
only gravity and passion but a sustaining voice of hope. Introducing
Girmay’s debut collection, “Teeth*,*” poet Martín Espada writes that her
work is “so strong, so brave, so lyrical, so fiery, so joyful, that the
usual superlatives fail.”
Girmay weaves her multicultural heritage (Eritrean, Puerto Rican and African
American) into a distinctive political voice. From the African folk tale to
the open-air markets of Puerto Rico, Girmay recovers the images of her
mother countries, merging the traditions—culinary, spiritual,
storytelling—into a poetry of resistance and survival. Drawing on stories
from Iraq, Darfur and Nicaragua, she takes a stance of “solidarity with
people whose history changes, or is forcibly changed by war, poverty and the
damaging actions or apathy of the world’s leaders,” writes poet Rigoberto
Gonzalez in a review of “Teeth.”
Girmay’s reading will be followed by a book sale and signing. For further
information, call Michaela Cahillane in the Poetry Center office at (413)
585-4891 or Ellen Doré Watson, Poetry Center director, at (413) 585-3368.
For disability access information or to request accommodations, call (413)
585-2407. To request a sign language interpreter specifically, call (413)
585-2071 (voice or TTY) or e-mail *ODS@smith.edu*. All requests must be
made at least 10 days prior to the event.
Office of College Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063
Marti Hobbes
News Assistant
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
mhobbes@email.smith.edu
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