Patrick Rosal Poetry Workshop and Readings

in collaboration with

Split This Rock is excited to partner with George Mason University's Fall for the Book Festival to present three special events with Patrick Rosal: a poetry

workshop and readings in both DC and Virginia. 

Patrick Rosal is the author of four full-length poetry collections. His newest book, Brooklyn Antediluvian, was called by Publisher's Weekly "an earth-shattering performance." Patricia Smith says of the collection, "The poet's wide-aloud love song to New York's most boisterous borough is a deftly-crafted tour-de-force, a sleek melding of lyric and unflinching light." He also is the author of Boneshepherds, My American Kundiman, and Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive. His collections have been honored with the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award, Global Filipino Literary Award and the Asian American Writers Workshop Members' Choice Award.





EVENTS

Fall for the Book Reading (VA) | Sept. 30 | 4-5:15 pm | FREE
GMU - Fairfax, VA, Sandy Spring Bank Tent, Johnson Ctr. Plaza
Don't miss Patrick Rosal at this week-long regional festival for all ages! Read more about the event and the festival at the Fall for the Book website.

Argument with the Self and the World: A Poetry Workshop 
Oct. 1 | 1-3:30 pm | $20 
1301 Connecticut St, NW, Suite #600, Washington, DC 
In this workshop, participants will read poems for their argument-not intellectual or legal arguments exactly, but poetic arguments. What kinds of arguments can a poem make that litigation or ad copy can't? How does a poem make an argument in images? Can a poet make beauty of dissent, not just with "the world," but with "the self"? Workshop will include a combination of reading, discussion, and writing. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcomed! No experience necessary. Space is limited and scholarships available. Register online by September 29! 

Reading at Upshur Street Books | Oct. 1 | 6-7:30 pm | FREE
827 Upshur St. NW, Washington, DC
Join us for poetry, community, and light refreshments as Patrick Rosal shares his work. Special guest Holly Bass, Poet & Multidisciplinary Artist! Learn more on the Facebook event page.

Join Us for 3 Fabulous 100,000 Poets for Change Events featuring Mahogany L. Browne!

As part of the global celebration of poetry, art, and music's ability to promote social, environmental, and political change, Split This Rock is thrilled to join with Little Patuxent Review, Upshur Street Books, and the George Mason University Fall for the Book Festival to present three FREE events featuring Mahogany L. Browne, co-founder of #BlackPoetsSpeakOut, a movement that engages Black poets and poetry in the Black Lives Matter movement. Learn more about the annual 100,000 Poets for Change celebration and other affiliated events at its website.

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Mahogany L. Browne bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcees. Author of Smudge, she is an Urban Word NYC mentor, as seen on HBO's Brave New Voices and facilitates performance poetry and writing workshops throughout the country. Browne is also the publisher of Penmanship Books, the Nuyorican Poets Café Poetry Program Director and Friday Night Slam curator, and currently an MFA Candidate for Writing & Activism at Pratt Institute.

Get an early peek at what's in store by watching Browne perform "#blkgrlmagic" on Youtube.

JOIN US FOR THESE FREE SPECIAL EVENTS!

The Poet's Response: A Conversation on Social Justice & Poetics

Sun., Sept. 27 | 12-1pm | Baltimore Inner Harbor | FREE  

This Baltimore Book Festival panel & poetry reading features Mahogany Browne, zakia henderson-brown, Goldie Patrick, & Laura Shovan. Co-moderated by Sarah Browning (Split This Rock) and Steven Leyva (Little Patuxent Review). Visit the Baltimore Book Festival's website for more info.

Reading at Upshur Street Books 

Sun., Sept. 27 | 6pm | 827 Upshur St. NW, DC | FREE 

Join us for poetry, light refreshments, and inspiration as Mahogany Browne shares her heart-filling poetry. Visit the Facebook event page for more info.

Reading at GMU Fall for the Book Festival 

Mon., Sept. 28 | 4:30pm | GMU - Fairfax, Virginia campus, 

Sandy Spring Bank Tent, Johnson Ctr. Plaza | FREE
Don't miss Mahogany Browne at this week-long regional festival for all ages! Read more about the event and the festival at the Fall for the Book website. 

Martín Espada to Receive Busboys and Poets Award @ Fall for the Book

Martín Espada will receive the 2014 Busboys and Poets Award on Saturday, September 13, at 5:30 p.m. in Grand Tier III, Center for the Arts, on George Mason University’s Fairfax, VA, campus.  

The award is sponsored by Busboys and Poets, a restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place based in Washington, DC. In addition to recognizing the work of the poet chosen to receive it, the award also pays tribute to Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., during the 1920s before he gained recognition as a poet. 

Sarah Browning, Executive Director of Split This Rock and a long-time host of poetry programming at Busboys and Poets, will present the award—which includes a plaque and a monetary award—following a talk and reading by Espada.

Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published more than fifteen books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His latest collection of poems, The Trouble Ball (Norton), is the recipient of the Milt Kessler Award, a Massachusetts Book Award and an International Latino Book Award. His previous book of poems, The Republic of Poetry (Norton), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also received an American Book Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. 

The title poem of his collection, Alabanza, about 9/11, has been widely anthologized and performed. His book of essays, Zapata’s Disciple(South End Press), has been banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston’s Latino community, Espada is currently a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Previous winners of the Busboys and Poets Award include Claudia Rankine (2011), Rita Dove (2012), and Sonia Sanchez (2013).

Full details here: http://fallforthebook.org/2014/06/13/busboys-and-poets-award-martin-espada/