Maine Humanities Council

Patricia Smith is a 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Blood Dazzler, also the basis of a forthcoming dance/theater performance with Urban Bush Women. Her other books of poetry are Teahouse of the Almighty, winner of the National Poetry Series, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize; Close to Death; Big Towns, Big Talk; and Life According to Motown. She has read her work at venues around the U.S. and around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and tours of Germany and Austria. Smith is a four-time national individual Poetry Slam winner, the most successful competitor in slam history. Her first children’s book, Janna and the Kings, was a Lee & Low Books New Voices Award winner.

A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, Smith joined the Stonecoast faculty in January 2009. Annie Finch, Director of the Stonecoast program, introduced her for this, her first reading as a faculty member.

Patricia Smith [ 46:08 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4034)

“Weaving History and Literature: the African American Oral and Written Tradition” brought five writers together to read from their work and discuss how African American history is revealed through storytelling and literature. The speakers were JerriAnne Boggis, founder and director of the Harriet Wilson Project; Kate Clifford Larson, biographer of Harriet Tubman; novelists Michael C. White and David Anthony Durham; and poet Patricia Smith. Biographies of the speakers are available here; download the walking tour map of the Portland Freedom Trail in PDF format here.

This event was held at the Portland Museum of Art on July 11, 2008. We welcome your feedback.

Portland Freedom Trail [ 1:29:23 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5737)