Activities and Projects



 

Scholarly Projects

  •  Dr. Gabbin is editing a collection of memoirs by the Wintergreen Women Writers' Collective, a group of African American writers who meet annually to write and workshop together.  The collection titled "Shaping Memories: Reflections of African Americ'Go, Tell Michelle' book coveran Women Writers" will be published by Unversity Press of Mississippi in Fall 2009.

 

  • Dr. Gabbin is featured in the book Go, Tell Michelle: African American Women Write to the New First Lady released in January 2009 which was featured on NPR.  The book gathers together letters and poems to Michelle Obama, written by African American and African women.
  • Dr. Gabbin was one of the judges for the Library of Virginia's Literary Award in Poetry.  At the 2008 Literary Awards Gala she presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Rita Dove.

 

  • The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church hosted its 8th Annual Underground Railroad Conference in Lancaster, PA on November 14, 2008. The conference theme for this year was: "Education of the Enslaved African 1765-1865." Dr. Joanne Gabbin presented "Hidden from View: The Heroic Lives of Two Harriets," the life experiences of Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Wilson, one enslaved and the other free, at the conference.

 

  • Spring 2009 Dr. Gabbin taught:

ENG 412J Life Writing: Lives of Contemporary African American Writers
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-10:45 am
Keezell Hall, Room 414

This course focused on the practice of life writing, most commonly recognized as autobiography, done by African American writers during the last fifty years. 

2008 - 2009 Visiting Poets and Events

 

April is National Poetry Month

 
National Poetry Month was established by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 as a month-long, national celebration of poetry. The goal is to increase the attention paid by individuals and the media to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our poetic heritage, and to poetry books and magazines. National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world.

 Poetry Contest
The Furious Flower Poetry Center hosted a poetry writing contest as part of the National Poetry Month celebration. Interested students wrote a poem in response to this photo and submitted it to Dr. Gabbin by April 6.       
Poems were no longer than 45 lines and could be in traditional forms or free verse.  The poems were read Wednesday, April 8, 2009 in Carrier Library, room 109 at a 7:00 pm reception. 





Poetry Month Guest Poet

 Ewuare Osayande

 Word is Born Poet Society 

and

Ewuare Osayande 

were in TDU

(JMU Taylor Down Under)

Thursday, April 16, 2009,

Ewuare Osayande,  political activist, award-winning author, cultural analyst, poet, essayist, publisher and institution builder visited JMU's Taylor Down Under.  

"His perspective was radical concerning the direction of urban life and African American cultrue.  He delivered great protest poetry using ideas of change."  -- JMU student Richard Coppage

 
Poetry Month Poem of the Day

Click to enjoy a new poem each weekday of April

 

 POETRY READINGS  

 

 March 2009

Natash Trethewey 2007 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Poetry

 Natasha Trethewey currently holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair and is Professor of Poetry in the Creative  Writing Program at Emory University.  In addition to having taught at Auburn University, she has taught at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, and Duke University (where she was the 2005-2006 Lehman Brady Joint Chair Professor of Documentary and American Studies).  She is married to Brett Gadsden, a professor of African American history at Emory.  Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her most recent collection called Native Guard (Houghton  Mifflin 2006).  She received the Mississippi Governor's Award for  Literature in  February 2008.

The March poetry performance also featured a music selection by Dr. Carrie Stevens, soloist accompanied by Mr. Eric Ruple, pianist from JMU's School of Music; and, an original selection by Chorale from JMU's School of Music, directed by Dr. Patrick Walders.  Natasha Trethewey's visit to JMU was co-sponsored with the Center for Multicultural Student Services

 

February 2009

Patricia SmithPatricia Smith, four time national SLAM champion, read from Blood Dazzler at James Madison University on February 2, 2009.  Blood Dazzler, a 2008 National Book Award finalist, is a disturbing and heartbreaking mix of voices from Hurricane Katrina. Smith masters the art of persona poetry in the book, putting words to Katrina and to the countless others who could not speak for themselves. Hearing a writer read her own work is always a special event, but hearing Patricia Smith tell the story of Luther B, a family dog left behind to weather the storm and listening to the litany of voices from the 34 elderly souls left to drown at St. Rita's Nursing Home made the tragedy personal. Smith told the audience that she wrote the book because she wants people who pick up her poems 15 or 20 years from now to rediscover the history and shame of Hurricane Katrina. Blood Dazzler makes it unlikely that rediscovery will ever be necessary.

Feb. 4, 2009

Elizabeth Haworth

October 2008 

 Cornelius Eady

The Furious Flower hosted a poetry reading with Cornelius Eady, author of seven books of poetry, the latest of which is Hardheaded Weather (Putnam, 2008), at JMU's Memorial Hall Auditorium, October 20th  for students, faculty and visitors from local schools.  The afternoon program opened with a reading by poets from the Word Is Born Poets Society.   Ivaco Clarke, Lauren Smith and Jonathan Belmonte recited original poems.   Mr. Eady then read unpublished poems and material from his new book Hardheaded Weather.   Cornelius Eady signed copies of his books and met with members of the audience in a reception following the program. 

 
A SEASON OF HOPE    
   September 2008

 4 Little Girls

  • The Center sponsored a film showing of the movie "4 LITTLE GIRLS" by Spike Lee at the Memorial Hall Auditorium.   4 Little Girls is a 1997 historical documentary film about the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It was directed by Spike Lee and nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary".
 
  •  A Season of Hope also featured a musical experience with Freedom Singer RUTHA HARRIS and guest appearances by children from the 2008 Children's Poetry Camp 
 Rutha Harris


Conferences

The Furious Flower Poetry Center has organized two conferences that brought together well-established and emerging African American poets.  The first Furious Flower conference, A Revolution in African American Poetry, was held at James Madison University in 1994.  Ten years later, many poets and critics gathered in the same space to focus on Regenerating the Black Poetic Tradition.  Both conferences were dedicated to poet Gwendolyn Brooks.  Please visit our archives to find out more about these decade-defining conferences.