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Amherst, MA - MotherWoman invites area women to the 3rd Annual Mom’s Night Out at the MotherWoman Café with guest speaker and performer Patricia Smith. Smith is a world renowned poet, writer, and spoken word performer. Saturday, November 17 at 7pm at Union Station Restaurant, Northampton. $35- advanced ticket sales at www.motherwoman.org or (413) 253-8990. $39 at the door. Limited scholarships available to low income participants. Call for scholarship information. All proceeds from this event will be used to support the programs of MotherWoman, Inc. MotherWoman, Inc. is a local non-profit organization that supports and empowers mothers to create personal and social change for themselves, their families, their communities and the world. Mom’s Night Out at the MotherWoman Café offers a fabulous, women’s only, relaxing evening in an opulent setting with desserts, coffee, cash bar & beautiful items to bid on in our pre-holiday silent auction. Patricia Smith will talk about her life, her struggles and triumphs as a mother and a woman. She will perform her poetry and then lead interested audience members in the creation of artistic expressions through written, visual or performance art. As a extremely dynamic African American woman, writer, mother and grandmother, Patricia Smith leaves her audiences breathless with the honesty, beauty and energy of her poetry performances. She speaks the truth, empowering others to express themselves with more courage. All women welcome. This event is made possible through the generous support of many, including: Amherst College Black Studies Department, Amherst College Creative Writing Program, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Deans Beans Organic Coffee, Green River Doula Network, Patricia Lee Lewis at Patchwork Farm Retreat, Smith College Office of Institutional Diversity, UMASS Social Thought and Political Economy Department, the Valley Advocate, and Writers in Progress. Patricia Smith is one of the finest published poets and performance poets in the world. As a performance poet, Smith is the four time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and has performed her poetry for audiences throughout North America and Europe. She was featured in the nationally-released film “Slamnation,” and was a featured poet on the award-winning HBO series “Def Poetry Jam.” A film of Smith performing her poem “Undertaker,” won awards at the Sundance and San Francisco Film Festivals and earned a prestigious Cable Ace Award from the Lifetime Network’s Women’s Film Festival. Smith’s latest poetry book, Teahouse of the Almighty, was chosen by Ed Sanders for the 2005 National Poetry Series and published by Coffee House Press. Her poems have appeared in many publications, including, The Oxford Book of African-American Poetry and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Her other poetry books include: Close to Death, Big Towns, Big Talk, and Life According to Motown. Her first children’s book, Janna and the Kings, won the New Voices Award. Her second children’s book, Mahina the Mad, Mad Moon was just completed. As a scholar, she is the co-author of Africans in America, the companion book to the PBS series. She is currently completing a book of poems about the human toll of Hurricane Katrina, as well as Fixed on a Star: The Journeys of Harriet Tubman, to be published by Crown in 2007. Smith’s essays were recently published in the anthologies Convictions and Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood, which won an American Book Award. She is the winner of the Patterson Poetry Prize, the Pushcart, the Carl Sandburg Award, the Illinois Council of the Arts literary award, and has received an honorary degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She was recently inducted into the International Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent. Pat |
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