Tomorrow (September 18, 2016) is the Stars of the Commonwealth reading for the Kentucky Women Writers Conference. The readers will be Sarah Gorham, Julie Hensley, and Bobbie Ann Mason.
Videos from Stars of the Commonwealth
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Category Archives: video
Bianca Spriggs’ What Women Are Made Of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDI3z7OD7i0
On Valentine’s Day 2016, Bianca Spriggs invited women of all ages, shapes, backgrounds for a short film based on her poem “What Women Are Made Of”. Bianca wrote and directed the film, which was shot by Brian Campbell and Landon Antonetti.
The poem is included in Bianca’s collection Call Her by Her Name (Northwestern University Press). Bianca is also the author of How Swallowtails Become Dragons (Accents Publishing) and is the co-editor of Circe’s Lament: Anthology of Wild Women Poetry.
On September 22nd, Bianca will be celebrating the release of her newest poetry collection, The Galaxy is a Dance Floor (Argos Books), with “Bianca’s Big Geek Book Release Party” at 21C Museum Hotel. (Click here for more information about that event.)
Frank X Walker Snapshot
“If you don’t tell your own story, then someone else will,” says Frank X Walker in a video released by Creative Lexington earlier this year.
Walker also explains the origins of the “X” in “Frank X Walker”:
But it’s not an abbreviation for ‘Xylophone’ or ‘Xavier’. It’s just ‘X’, as in the unknown, like in mathematics.
He then goes into a brief genesis of the term “Affrilachia”, which deals with his dictionary defining “appalachian” as a “white person from Appalachia”.
Creative Lexington’s mission is to share stores about Lexington, Kentucky. Their “Snapshot Bios” are 3-5 minute videos designed to “celebrate the vibrant creative scene and sense of community in Lexington” (source). The video was produced by Bryan Mullins and Filmed/Edited by John Buckman with music by Matt Mason.
Curtis Crisler Reading from Black Achilles
Curtis L. Crisler, author of Black Achilles (Accents Publishing), spoke to Liz Whiteacre’s class at the University of Indianapolis about “personification” and “persona” in poetry, and he reads several poems from Black Achilles. He describes “persona” as “where the voice of the narrator comes from”. In one poem, he personifies “inconvenience”. The other poems identify the actual narrator of the book, Black Achilles, and are viewed through his perspective.
According to Leslie Anne McIlroy, Black Achilles explores “our love affair with convenience, our ever-growing cloak of invulnerability, our pining for youth, immortality—how we unhinge at its loss.” Black Achilles is currently available from Accents Publishing.
Kentucky Writers Day 2016
Lori meadows, Executive Director for the Kentucky Arts Council gave the opening remarks for Kentucky Writers’ Day on April 25th, 2016.
Below are videos of the other readers, three of which are poets published by Accents and all of which are Poet Laureates of Kentucky.
bell hooks at Berea College
At Berea’s 2015 Appalachian Symposium, bell hooks led the keynote by talking about belonging to Appalachian culture and how it has shaped her life. The panel also includes Gwyn Rubio, Pam Duncan, Amy Greene, and Crystal Wilkinson.
More videos from the event can be found on Berea College’s YouTube page.
Audio recordings of the events are available here.
Kentucky’s Poetry Out Loud 2016 Finals
Naomi Cliett of Elizabethtown High School is the Kentucky finalist for Poetry Out Loud. The event was held February 23rd, 2016, at the Grand Theatre in Frankfort, Kentucky. Click here for coverage of the finals from The Lane Report.
Below are the semi-finalists for the event. Continue reading
Individual World Poetry Slam 2015 Champion readings
The champion of 2015’s Individual World Poetry Slam in Washington, DC was Emi Mahmoud. The above video is her first reading during the slam’s finals. The video below is her second reading. Continue reading
“she prepares a romantic dinner” by Yordanka Beleva
Accents-published poet Nettie Farris reads “She prepares a romantic dinner” by Yordanka Beleva. This poem was translated by Katerina Stoykova-Klemer.
Clip from the North American Premiere of The Season of Delicate Hunger: Anthology of Contemporary Bulgarian Poetry (Accents Publishing) at the Morris book shop. The reading took place on Saturday, January 24, 2014.
Nettie Farris is the author of Communion (Accents Publishing, 2013) and—most recently—Fat Crayons (Finishing Line Press 2015). According to her 2015 LexPoMo bio, Nettie spends her spare time writing poems, practicing yoga, attending mass, praying the rosary, and, like Alice, going to tea parties.
Frank X Walker reads “Love Letter to the World” at Kentucky Writers’ Day 2015
Frank X Walker read during the inauguration of George Ella Lyon at Kentucky Writers’ Day on April 24th, 2015. He read the poem “Love Letter to the World”, which was the poem selected for the Lexington Tattoo Projectin in 2015.
Kentucky Writers’ Day was established by the Kentucky General Assemply in 1990 in order to honor Robert Penn Warren, which is why it is set on or around his birthday, April 24th. Every odd year, the event inaugurates the new Kentucky Poet Laureate. In 2015, that was George Ella Lyon.
The next Kentucky Writers’ Day will be on Monday, April 25th at the Capital Rotunda in Frankfort, Kentucky. Click here for more information.