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Celebrating the Words That Make Us:
An Evening with Claudia Rankine & Bernardine Evaristo at Brown University, February 11, 2025Part of the Brown Arts IGNITE Series, the evening will bring these acclaimed writers together in conversation with Kwame Dawes, exploring contemporary
African and African diasporic literatures.
This February 11, Brown University’s Department of Literary Arts, in partnership with the Brown Arts Institute (BAI) and the Brown Arts IGNITE Series, will host Celebrating the Words That Make Us: An Evening with Claudia Rankine & Bernardine Evaristo. Presented in the Main Hall of Brown’s new Lindemann Performing Arts Center, the event will bring together award-winning writers Claudia Rankine and Bernardine Evaristo in conversation with Kwame Dawes. The evening will feature readings from Rankine and Evaristo and a conversation guided by Dawes that will explore each of their works as well as their engagements with the nuances and emergences of contemporary African and African diasporic literatures. The event will be followed by a book signing and reception in the lobby. The Department of Literary Arts and the Brown Arts Institute are part of the Perelman Arts District.
“It is with great joy that we gather together these luminaries of African diasporic literature and to share their work with the Brown and Providence communities.” said Literary Arts Department Chair Matthew Shenoda. “Rankine, Evaristo, and Dawes have each contributed significantly to the shaping of African, African-American, and Caribbean literature across multiple genres and geographies addressing everything from the personal and pastoral to the systemic and structural. Each of these writers has contributed to the ways we come to understand the nuances of Black life across the world and in this moment and I can think of no better time to share in their words and ideas.”
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
What:
Celebrating the Words That Make Us: An Evening with Claudia Rankine & Bernardine Evaristo
Bringing together award-winning writers Claudia Rankine and Bernardine Evaristo in conversation with Kwame Dawes, this event will feature readings from Rankine and Evaristo along with a conversation guided by Dawes exploring each of their works, as well as their engagements with the nuances and emergences of contemporary African and African diasporic literatures.
Where:
The Lindemann Performing Arts Center, Main Hall
144 Angell Street, Providence, RI
When:
February 11, 2025
5:30pm
Followed by a reception and book signing in the lobby
Reservations:
Free and open to the public
For more information:
Please visit
https://arts.brown.edu/
About the Artists
Kwame Dawes is the author of dozens of books of poetry and other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent collection is Sturge Town W.W. Norton 2024). Dawes is Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. He teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Kwame Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham/Campbell Award for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022 Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica. He is the Poet Laureate of Jamaica (2024-2027).
Bernardine Evaristo is the author of the 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other. Her numerous other works span the genres of fiction, verse fiction, short fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism, and radio and theatre drama. Other fiction titles include Mr. Loverman, Blonde Roots, and Lara. Her first non-fiction book, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, will be published in 2022 by Grove Atlantic. Her writing is celebrated for its experimentation, daring, subversion, and challenging the myths of Afro-diasporic identities and histories. A staunch and longstanding activist and advocate for the inclusion of artists and writers of color, Evaristo has initiated several successful schemes to ensure increased representation in the creative industries. In 2022, Evaristo was elected a President of the Royal Society of Literature. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.
Claudia Rankine is the author of five books of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric; three plays including HELP, which premiered in March 2020 (The Shed, NYC), and The White Card, which premiered in February 2018 (ArtsEmerson/ American Repertory Theater) and was published by Graywolf Press in 2019; as well as numerous video collaborations. Her recent collection of essays, Just Us: An American Conversation, was published by Graywolf Press in 2020. She is also the co-editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. In 2016, Rankine co-founded The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII). Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, the Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, United States Artists, and the National Endowment of the Arts. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Claudia Rankine joined the NYU Creative Writing Program in Fall 2021. She lives in New York.
About the Department of Literary Arts
Along with only a handful of other writing programs nationwide, Brown’s Program in Literary Arts, part of the Perelman Arts District, provides a home for innovative writers of fiction, poetry, electronic writing (hypertext) and mixed media. Established in the mid-1960s by poet, translator and critic Edwin Honig, the Program in Literary Arts continues its tradition of hiring and retaining a faculty comprised of nationally and internationally known authors. Each year, the program offers 60 – 70 classes, awards the M.F.A. degree to approximately 12 graduate student writers, and confers Honors or Capstone certificates on about 35 talented undergraduate writers. In spring 2005, the Program also established, for the first time, an undergraduate concentration in Literary Arts.
About the Brown Arts IGNITE Series
Brown Arts’ IGNITE Series uplifts the spirit of artistic collaboration across Brown, Providence, the Rhode Island region, and beyond. Launched with the opening of The Lindemann Performing Arts Center in October 2023, the IGNITE Series showcases a diverse array of offerings from across our Brown Arts ecosystem, including projects by students, student groups, faculty and departments, Brown alumni, Brown Arts Institute collaborations with other campus units and Artistic Innovators, as well as projects by local and regional artists and arts organization
About the Brown Arts Institute (BAI)
Brown Arts Institute, part of the Perelman Arts District, is a university-wide research enterprise and catalyst for the arts at Brown that creates new work and supports, amplifies, and adds new dimensions to the creative practices of Brown’s arts departments, faculty, students, and community. Through year-round programming, research-focused courses, initiatives, collaborations, and partnerships, along with rigorous artistic and academic programs, BAI commissions and presents new work on campus, across Providence, Rhode Island, and beyond, from students, faculty, and on-campus arts groups, as well as in collaboration with forward-focused visiting artists and other performing arts organizations.