Writing into Inhospitable Space
Poets Cherene Sherrard and Heather Swan discuss poetry of witness and newly inhabited histories from their new books live on Crowdcast. Join the event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/wbf-writing-into. Before the event begins, you will see a countdown and the event image.
How does poetry allow us to write into and heal from living in spaces that do not offer nourishment and sustenance, but rather toxicities, physical and psychological? What does it take to make yourself heard in a hostile environment? How do you soften hearts while protecting your own well-being? We will read and talk about how poetry can replenish and open opportunities for creating uncommon kinships. Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston once said: “All my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.” Contrary-wise, is it possible to make someone on the opposite side of the political, social, or cultural aisle kin? The audience will have a chance to participate in the conversation that will examine inhospitable aspects of our current moment including institutional racism, environmental violence and their overlap, and also consider spells and recipes for making a better world.
Cherene Sherrard
Originally from Los Angeles, Cherene Sherrard is a poet, scholar, and essayist. She is the Sally Mead Hands-Bascom Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her creative writing and research explores the nuanced and multifaceted aspects of black life in the diaspora. She is the author of Portraits of the New Negro Woman: Visual and Literary Culture in the Harlem Renaissance (2007) and Dorothy West’s Paradise: A Biography of Class and Color (2011) Her debut poetry collection, Vixen, was published in 2017 and her chapbook, Mistress, Reclining was the winner of the new women’s voice award from Finishing Line Press. Her creative nonfiction and poetry has been published in The Rumpus, Plume, The New York Times Magazine, Verse Daily, The Journal, Terrain.org, Blackbird, Water~Stone Review, Prairie Schooner, and numerous other journals. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Wisconsin Arts Board Grant and poetry fellowships to Ragdale and Sewanee Writer’s Conference.
Heather Swan
Heather Swan is a poet and a creative nonfiction writer. Her most recent book is Where The Grass Still Sings. Her critically acclaimed book Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field, also published by Penn State University Press, won the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award and first prize in the scholarly book category at the annual New York Book Show. She teaches writing and environmental literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.