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Women's Poetry Open Mic to become Annual MotherWoman event
Reknowned Poet Patricia Smith and local women poets dazzle audience in Benefit for MotherWoman Reknowned Poet Patricia Smith and local women poets from the area performed their poetry in a benefit for MotherWoman on Sept. 28, 2006 at Stoddard Hall on the Smith college Campus. 80 people attended, enjoying amazing poetry, coffee donated by Dean's Beans and baked goods donated by MotherWoman volunteers. MotherWoman raised $800 from the event, which will be used to implement programs serving mothers and their children in the pioneer valley. Patricia Smith had such a great time that she has agreed to make this an annual fundraising event for us. As well, several women poets who came asked MotherWoman to organize a monthly women's poetry open mic, which we're working on organizing right now! This event was made possible through the generous support of: Amherst College Black Studies Department, Community Against Hate, Creative Writing Program at Hampshire College, Deans Beans Organic Coffee, Five College Women's Studies Research Center, Food for Thought Books, Patricia Lee Lewis at Patchwork Farm Retreat, The Poetry Center at Smith College, UMass English Department, UMass Social Thought and Political Economy Department, UMass W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, and Western Massachusetts Writing Project. 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 working on 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 prestigious 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. In Spring, 2004, Smith was the McEver Chair in Writing at Georgia Tech University. She is a staff instructor at Cave Canem, a retreat for African-American writers. |
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