Diane Seuss and t'ai freedom ford open the 53rd season of the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library
On Tuesday, October 5 at 7:30pm, the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library opens its 53rd season with The Ties That Un/Bind, a virtual reading by acclaimed poets Diane Seuss and t'ai freedom ford. Seuss and ford take chaos and craft it into an explosive fourteen-line package. Using the sonnet form that is more than 400 years old, these poems are propulsive, poly-vocal, and poly-verbal gems. This reading will be followed by a moderated conversation where audience members can ask their own questions.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 09, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- On Tuesday, October 5 at 7:30pm, the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series at the Folger Shakespeare Library opens its 53rd season with The Ties That Un/Bind, a virtual reading by acclaimed poets Diane Seuss and t'ai freedom ford. Tickets for this event are $5 - $30, with a suggested ticket price of $15. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.folger.edu/poetry or by calling the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077.
Delivering the O.B. Hardison Reading, Seuss and ford take chaos and craft it into an explosive fourteen-line package. Using the sonnet form that is more than 400 years old, these poems are propulsive, poly-vocal, and poly-verbal gems.
This reading will be followed by a moderated conversation where audience members watching via Zoom can ask their own questions.
Virtual Writing Workshop
On Monday, October 4 from 7:30pm-9:30pm EST, Diane Seuss will offer a special virtual writing workshop titled Sonnets and Son-nots: Experiments with Form. In this workshop, we will consider modern and contemporary offshoots of the traditional sonnet by poets e.e. cummings, Evie Shockley, Gerald Stern, and Terrance Hayes. We will also experiment with Seuss' sonnet form composed from American Sentences. Participants will create their own works and have the opportunity to share their writing.
The cost for the workshop is $75, with a discount for Folger Poetry season subscribers. Spaces are available for BIPOC participants and for those who would be aided by a sliding scale.
Contact Folger Poetry Coordinator Teri Cross Davis at [email protected] with any questions or for more information.
The O.B. Hardison Poetry Series is pleased to partner with East City Bookshop, an independently run, women-owned bookstore on Capitol Hill. Pickup is available at the shop, or they can ship. Visit their website at http://www.eastcitybookshop.com.
Ticket Information for the 2021/22 Season of Folger Poetry
The 2021/22 O.B. Hardison Poetry Series welcomes the best writers and speakers to the Folger in this unique and dynamic reading series. Authors Diane Seuss, Victoria Chang, t'ai freedom ford, Martín Espada, Shara McCallum, Tamiko Beyer, LeAnne Howe, and many more will engage audiences with language that lives beyond the first moment one hears them; that returns again and again, stretching itself out for clarity, for sustenance.
Subscriptions and single tickets to all O.B. Hardison Poetry Series readings are now on sale. Subscription packages and tickets may be purchased at http://www.folger.edu/poetry or by contacting the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077.
Learn more about the readings of the 2021/22 season of poetry at O.B. Hardison Poetry Series.
Readings Announced for the 2021/22 Season
The O.B. Hardison Reading: the Ties That Un/Bind
Featuring poets Diane Seuss and t'ai freedom ford
Virtual reading on Tuesday, October 5, 2021 at 7:30pm
The Eudora Welty Lecture
Delivered by author Ann Patchett (Bel Canto and The Dutch House)
Available to stream on-demand October 14, 2021 – June 30, 2022
Our Songs Came Through: A Celebration of Native Nations Poetry
Featuring poets LeAnn Howe and Tacey M. Atsitty
Virtual reading on Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 7:30pm
The Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute: Every Grief I Meet
Featuring poet Victoria Chang
Virtual reading on Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 7:30pm
Not Just Another Day Off: Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Poets and actors feature contemporary poetry alongside historical speeches from Dr. King
Free virtual streaming event, January 2022
Writing the Past to Right the Future: The Poets of Alice James Books
Featuring poets Shara McCallum and Tamiko Beyer
Virtual reading on Monday, March 7, 2022 at 7:30pm
The Folger Poetry Board Reading
Featuring poet Martín Espada
Virtual reading on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 at 7:30pm
About Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss was born in Indiana and raised in Michigan. She is the author of the poetry collections frank.sonnets; Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl; Four-Legged Girl, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open, winner of the 2009 Juniper Prize for Poetry; and It Blows You Hollow. Her work has appeared in Poetry, Georgia Review, Brevity, Able Muse, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and the Missouri Review, as well as The Best American Poetry 2014. She was the MacLean Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of English at Colorado College in 2012, and she has taught at Kalamazoo College since 1988.
About t'ai freedom ford
t'ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher. Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared in Apogee, Bomb Magazine, Calyx, Drunken Boat, Electric Literature, Gulf Coast, Kweli, Tin House, Poetry and others. Her poetry has been anthologized in A Body of Athletics edited by Natalie Diaz, The Break Beat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and Nepantla: An Anthology of Queer Poets of Color. t'ai has received awards and fellowships from Cave Canem, Camargo Foundation, The Center for Fiction, Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, Kimbilio, and The Poetry Project. In 2019, t'ai became a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship inaugural fellow. She is the author of two poetry collections, how to get over from Red Hen Press and & more black from Augury Books, finalist for the 2021 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2020 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Poetry. t'ai lives and loves in Brooklyn where she is an editor at No, Dear Magazine.
About The O.B. Hardison Poetry Series
The O.B. Hardison Poetry Series, one of the nation's most established poetry reading programs, is noted for featuring an extensive range of outstanding poets. The series was founded in 1970 when the late O.B. Hardison, Jr., a renowned teacher, scholar, and poet, became director of the Folger Shakespeare Library and established many outreach programs to make the resources of the extraordinary research library available to the Washington community. Major funding for the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series is provided by the Lannan Foundation, which sponsors readings at the Folger and at Georgetown University, as well as a collaborative undergraduate learning program with the Lannan Fellows.
Media Contact
Peter Eramo, Jr., Folger Shakespeare Library, 540-226-7385, [email protected]
Teri Cross Davis, Folger Shakespeare Library, 202.675.0374, [email protected]
SOURCE Folger Shakespeare Library
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