First Friday: Furious Flower Broadside Gallery presents The Writing on the Wall: Reading Black Poetry | June 2, 2023 | 5-7 p.m. | Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House
Furious Flower Poetry Center is thrilled to announce the launch of our third exhibit at the Broadside Gallery. We will be a part of The Arts Council of the Valley's First Friday Art Tour Friday, June 2 and are excited to welcome members of the community to see our third exhibition, The Writing on the Wall: Reading Black Poetry curated by Furious Flower Advisory Board Vice Chair Susan Facknitz. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.
First Friday: Furious Flower Broadside Gallery presents Black Women, Black Spring | May 5, 2023 | 5-7 p.m. | Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House
Furious Flower Poetry Center is excited to announce the continuation of our second exhibit at the Broadside Gallery. We will be a part of The Arts Council of the Valley's First Friday tour Friday, May 5 and are excited to welcome members of the community to see our second exhibition, Black Women, Black Spring. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.
Furious Flower at BOCAS Literary Festival | April 29, 2023 | 11-1 p.m. | Trinidad & Tobago
Poets Jason Allen-Paisant (Self-Portrait as Othello) and Celia A. Sorhaindo (Radical Normalisation), whose award-winning work grapples with multiplicities of selves and personas, will join L. Renée in conversation about their writing and approach to craft.
For more information, please see: bit.ly/FFPC-Bocas
Poet-Tree | April 22, 2023 | 11-1 p.m.| EJC Arboretum
In celebration of Earth Day and National Poetry Month, Furious Flower is teaming up with the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum for an all-ages workshop and sharing of poems. L. Renée will facilitate writing workshops for kids ages 12 and under, and Lauren K. Alleyne will facilitate workshops for teenagers and adults. For those who want to spend time contemplating and writing on their own, a poetry prompt will be provided at the on-site labyrinth.
Please bring your own Brown Bag lunch, as well as picnic blankets. Lemonade and cookies will be provided. The event will conclude with sharing and displaying poems at a Sweetgum tree. This event is free, but registration is required, as each workshop can hold a maximum of 20 participants.
Please register here: https://forms.gle/UTz66zzcJ3Myroy66
Furious Flower Poetry Prize Reading | April 20, 2023 | 4:30 p.m. | Taylor 405
Join us for a reading from 2023 Furious Flower Poetry Prize winner and honorable mention alongside judge, Evie Shockley in Taylor, room 405. More information about the prize winners will be announced after it closes in February 2023.
Visiting Writer L. Renée: A Reading & Reception | April 14 | 7:30-8:30 p.m. | Wortmann Ballroom, Colket Center, Roanoke College (Roanoke, VA)
Award-winning poet and writer L. Renée will read poetry at Roanoke College, her alma mater. A Q&A follows her reading, which will be held at Roanoke College’s Wortmann Ballroom, located inside the Colket Center. For more information, please see: bit.ly/RCReading
Books & Brews presents Solastalgia: An Anthology of Emotion for a Disappearing World | April 11, 2023 | 7 p.m. | Pale Fire Brewing Company
This powerful anthology brings together 34 writers-educators, journalists, poets, and scientists to share their emotions in the face of environmental crisis. Award-winning contributors Lauren K. Alleyne, Erica Cavanagh, and editor Paul Bogard will share their work at Pale Fire Brewing Company in Harrisonburg.
Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (WGSS) & Furious Flower present Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | April 10, 2023 | 4 p.m. | Burruss 0031
Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (American Promise, The Changing Same) craft a vision fit for the radical imagination of Nikki Giovanni. Through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings of her poetry, and impressions of space, Giovanni urges us to imagine a future where Black women lead, and equity is a reality. This film screening will be held in Burruss, Room 0031.
First Friday: Furious Flower Broadside Gallery presents Black Women, Black Spring | April 7, 2023 | 5-7 p.m. | Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House
Furious Flower Poetry Center is excited to announce the opening of our new exhibit at the Broadside Gallery. We will be a part of The Arts Council of the Valley's First Friday tour Friday, April 7 and are excited to welcome members of the community to see the debut of our second exhibition, Black Women, Black Spring. This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.
Oak Spring Garden Foundation & Furious Flower present The Landscapes of Black Poetry| April 1, 2023 | 5:30-7 p.m. | Rokeby Granary, Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Upperville, VA)
Join us for The Landscapes of Black Poetry, a free poetry event on Saturday, April 1, from 5:30–7 p.m. at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation’s Rokeby Granary in Upperville, VA. This event will kick off National Poetry Month and will include a wine reception, poetry reading, and conversation about poems of place, belonging, and engagement with the natural world.
If you'd like to attend this event, please register here: bit.ly/landscapesofblackpoetry
Mervyn Taylor: Open Mic & Poetry Reading | March 23, 2023 | 6:30 p.m. | The Golden Pony
Join us for an open mic and poetry reading from international poet, Mervyn Taylor at The Golden Pony in downtown Harrisonburg on March 23. Taylor is a Trinidad-born poet who divides his time between Brooklyn, NY, and his native island. In his poems, for which he received two New York State Council on the Arts Grants, Taylor returns consistently to themes that deal with ordinary folk, with family and friends, finding the heroic quality of their lives as they face the difficulties of survival. He speaks of a cousin, now blind, who looks after his mother, also blind, taping on the clothes she insists on tearing off. He plays music as she complains, "there's no one to dance with!" He writes about the terrible earthquake in Haiti, about the resilient people whom "freedom eludes, like a goat that has run into the sea." He recalls his father, in the old days a Trinidad Railway conductor, who "lost his thumb to the trains." The open mic will start at 6:30 p.m. downstairs at The Golden Pony and sign-ups will be first-come-first-served. Mervyn Taylor's poetry reading will start after the open mic portion at 7:30 p.m. This event will be livestreamed on the Center's Facebook page.
Shara McCallum: Poetry Reading | February 17, 2023 | 4:30 p.m. | Highlands Room, Festival Conference Center
The reading and Q&A will be held from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Highlands Room in the Festival Conference Center and livestreamed on Facebook. The book signing will follow the reading from 5:30 to 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. It is part of the 13th Annual African, African American, and Diaspora Studies (AAAD) Interdisciplinary Conference held at James Madison University and is sponsored by the 2022 Poetry Fund Grant from The Academy of American Poets in cooperation with the Amazon Literary Partnership.
Shara McCallum: Faculty & Staff Workshop | February 17, 2023 | 12-1:15 p.m. | Pathways, Wine-Price Building
Shara McCallum, award-winning Jamaican poet, will be providing a workshop for the Faculty & Staff at James Madison University in Pathways in the Wine-Price building on campus. Faculty/Staff that are interested in attending should notify the center via email.
First Friday: Furious Flower Broadside Gallery Presents Dynamic Duos | February 3, 2023 | 5-7 p.m. | Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House
Furious Flower Poetry Center is excited to announce the opening of our new Furious Flower Broadside Gallery. We will be a part of The Arts Council of the Valley's First Friday tour starting February 3 and are excited to welcome members of the community to see our first exhibition, Dynamic Duos. This event is free and open to the public.
L. Renée: Poetry Reading | November 10, 2022 | 5 p.m. | Highlands Room, Festival Conference Center
Join us for a poetry reading from Furious Flower Poetry Center Assistant Director, L. Renée at the Highlands Room in the Festival Conference Center. Fusing both the creative and various modes of the historical, L. Renée writes about Blackness, Appalachian culture, and the joys and complications of inheritance. She is the recipient of the 2022 Rattle Poetry Prize, the Indiana University Guy Lemmon Award in Public Writing, Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing Alumni Award, Appalachian Review's Denny C. Plattner Award, 2021 Rattle Poetry Prize finalist, and second place for PLUCK! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture and New Limestone Review's Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize.
Teaching Black: BIPOC Faculty and Graduate Student Workshop (Virtual) | October 18, 2022 | 1:30-3:30 p.m.
In a "jam session" with BIPOC faculty and graduate students, editors Ana-Maurine Lara and drea brown will invite participants to engage with concepts and strategies drawn from the Teaching Black collection and then draw on shared experiences and knowledge to strengthen their curricular vocabulary for teaching on Black life and literature. Applications for this event close October 14, 2022 at 12 pm. For more information and to register click here: https://www.jmu.edu/events/cfi/2022/10/18-teaching-black-bipoc-faculty-grad-student-workshop.shtml
Teaching Black: Panel Discussion (Virtual) | October 18, 2022 | 10:30 am- 12 pm
Ana-Maurine Lara, drea brown, and Lauren K. Alleyne will share exerpts from the edited collection and facilitate a discussion with participants. Registration for this event is ongoing. For more information and to register click here: https://www.jmu.edu/events/cfi/2022/10/18-teaching-black-panel-discussion.shtml
Teaching Black: Virtual Book Discussion (Virtual) | October 17, 2022 | 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Furious Flower Poetry Center and the Center for Faculty Innovation present Teaching Black: Virtual Book Discussion with drea brown, Ana-Maurine Lara, and Lauren K. Alleyne. Participants will discuss the book and reflect on experiences including content from diverse perspectives in the classroom and the positive impact on the learning environment. This will be facilitated by Lauren K. Alleyne. This event is limited to 25 participants and applications for it will close October 13, 2022 at noon. For more information and to apply click here: https://www.jmu.edu/events/cfi/2022/10/17-teaching-black-book-discussion.shtml
"Voice-Overs" Broadside Exhibit Reading | October 7, 2022 | 5-7 p.m. | IVS Suite, Roop Hall 208
A new exhibit from the Virginia Center for the Book features a collection of poems by Virginia artists, responding to sexism, racism and biases in our cultural landscape. The opening reception is open to everyone and will include poetry readings by Furious Flower Executive Director Lauren K. Alleyne and Assistant Director L. Renée, Graduate Assistant Jessica Carter and 2022 Carmen R. Gillespie Fellow, Lily Craig, as well as a gallery talk by visiting poet and artist Lyall Harris. Co-sponsored by the College of Visual and Performing Arts, JMU Libraries, and Furious Flower. RSVP not required.
Representation Matters | October 7-8, 2022 | Bioscience Building
Furious Flower Poetry Center and JMU Biology are excited to bring Marilyn Nelson to campus to speak as part of the "Representation Matters" series, a series of talks and discussions with National DEI activists and champions. The event will kick off with a keynote by American ornithologist, birder, and science communicator Corina Newsome on Friday, October 7 at 5 pm (4:15 reception). Then, on October 8, we start the morning off with TED-style talks followed by facilitated discussions with Newsome; Marilyn Nelson, poet and naturalist; and Veronica Segarra, cutting-edge molecular biologist and DEI champion. The talks will be followed by longer-format facilitated discussions from 10:30-11:30 am. This event is free and open to the public, but please register in advance here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/representation-matters-tickets-412927375897. All events will be held in the Bioscience Building on campus.
Malika Booker: Reading & Open Mic | September 29, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. | The Golden Pony
Furious Flower Poetry Center is proud to welcome everyone to our first event of the semester, Malika Booker: Reading & Open Mic. Malika Booker is a British-Caribbean prize-winning writer whose work is steeped in anthropological research methodology and rooted in storytelling. The open mic portion will begin at 6:30 pm, followed by Malika's poetry reading at 7:30 pm at The Golden Pony in Downtown Harrisonburg. The event will also be livestreamed on our Facebook page and recordings will be available on both our Facebook and our YouTube channel. RSVP and add the event to your calendar here. This event is made possible by the 2022 Poetry Fund Grant from The Academy of American Poets in cooperation with the Amazon Literary Partnership.
Malika Booker: Word is Born & CMSS Workshop | September 28, 2022 | 7 p.m. | CMSS Classroom, Student Success Center
Join JMU's Center for Multicultural Student Services (CMSS) and Word is Born for a poetry workshop with international prize-winning writer, Malika Booker. The workshop will begin at 7 pm in the CMSS classroom in the Student Success Center.
Malika Booker: Faculty & Staff Workshop | September 26, 2022 | 12-1:15 p.m. | Pathways, Wine-Price Building
Malika Booker, international prize-winning writer whose work is steeped in anthropological research methodology and rooted in storytelling, will be providing a workshop for the Faculty & Staff at James Madison University in Pathways in the Wine-Price building on campus. Faculty/Staff that are interested in attending should notify the center via email.
