Let Us Make A Place: Words & Music From The Clearing
We gather to grieve. We gather to witness. We gather to remember. On April 15, 2023, please join us at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning to unveil the messages left by the community in response to Kiptoo Tarus’s “At the Clearing” installation, inspired by the murder of Breonna Taylor and in support of the Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative (KBWC).
Enjoy readings by Claudia Love Mair and Dr. Shauna M. Morgan. Marcus Wilkerson will provide musical accompaniment.
Claudia Love Mair is the author of 13 books, including Mourning Pages: Working Through Grief the Write Way, due to release in October of 2023. She holds an MFA in Writing from Spalding University, and is the coordinator for the Carnegie Center’s Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative. Claudia Love lives with her daughter, and two cats, Batman and Gizmo, in Lexington, KY.
Dr. Shauna M. Morgan is a poet-scholar and Associate Professor of creative writing and Africana literature at the University of Kentucky where she also serves as Director of Equity and Inclusion In in the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). Before joining the University of Kentucky, Shauna was tenured on the faculty of English at Howard University. Both her scholarly work and her poetry are deeply engaged with traditions of global Black art and culture. Her critical work has been published in Journal of Postcolonial Writing, South Atlantic Review, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, College Language Association Journal, and elsewhere. Her poetry has appeared in A Gathering Together; Interviewing the Caribbean; A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia; ProudFlesh: New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics & Consciousness, among other periodicals and anthologies. Her chapbook, Fear of Dogs & Other Animals was published by Central Square Press. She tends to a hopeful home garden at the Artists’ Village in the historic East End of Lexington, Kentucky.
Marcus Wilkerson is a singer and songwriter who hails from Louisville. He has performed at several local venues, and was the Artist in Residence for The Kentucky Hall of Fame. Marcus is also an entrepreneur whose products and services support health and wellness. He lives in Lexington, KY.
The event is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the CHETHIK FAMILY FUND TO ADVANCE BLACK WRITERS.
