Fall 2024 - Spring 2025 Reading Series
Furious Flower Poetry Center Reading Series
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Wednesday, April 9th, 2025 | Taylor Hall 404, 5:30pm
Poetry Extravaganza!
Thursday, April 17th, 4:00pm
A fun student poetry workshop and nexus for creatives on campus in collaboration with the Center for Multicultural Student Services.
Are you a writer, poet, singer or creative of any sort on campus? Do you desire expression and community? This is for you!
Theme: Home (Place of refuge or flight?)
Venue: Lavender Lounge
Led by Dr. Gbenga Adesina
Poet-TREE: Nature Writing Poetry Workshop in Collaboration with the EJC Arboretum
Saturday, April 19th, 12:30-2:30pm
Theme: Taste and Texture of Home
Venue: Frances Plecker Educational Center, the EJC Arboretum.
Led by Dr. Gbenga Adesina
Spring 2024 Events
First Fridays at Furious Flower Broadside Gallery | April 5 & May 3 | 5-7 p.m. | Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr.
Join us for another Arts Council of the Valley First Friday Downtown Art Tour reception featuring our seventh exhibition, El Ánimo: Exploring Afro-Latinx Poets, curated by Iliana Cosme-Brooks on Friday, April 5 and Friday, May 3 from 5-7 p.m. at Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr. Light refreshments provided. Free and open to the public.
Mahogany L. Browne: Poetry Reading | April 4 | 5:30 p.m. | Grafton/Stovall
JMU Honors College and Furious Flower Poetry Center are thrilled to announce a reading by award-winning poet, curator, and author Mahogany L. Browne on Thursday, April 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Grafton/Stovall Theatre at James Madison University. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center's Next 50 and Weseleyan's 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. Browne has received fellowships from Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research, and Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, and Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne's latest poetry collection Chrome Valley is a promissory note to survival and available from Norton.
This event will be livestreamed and recorded. It is free and open to the public. This is a JMU Passport event.
A Reading & Conversation with Shane McCrae | March 21 | 7 p.m. | Wilson Auditorium (Wilson)
Join us Wednesday, March 21 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Hall Auditorium at James Madison University for a reading and conversation with Shane McCrae, award-winning poet and memoirist. McCrae's most recent books of poetry are Cain Named the Animal, a finalist for the Forward Prize and longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award, and The Many Hundreds of the Scent. His memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, was published in 2023. That same year, he was awarded the Arthur Rense Poetry Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His other awards include a Lannan Literary Award and a Whiting Writer's Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
This event will be livestreamed and recorded. This is a JMU Passport Event.
First Fridays at Furious Flower Broadside Gallery | March 1 | 5-7 p.m. | Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr.
Join us for another Arts Council of the Valley First Friday Downtown Art Tour reception featuring the continuation of our sixth exhibition, Shades of Strength: Black Women's Resistance, curated by Furious Flower Carmen R. Gillespie Fellows India Williams and Taylor Nauflett on Friday, March 1 from 5-7 p.m. at Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr. Light refreshments provided. Free and open to the public.
Sean Hill: Faculty & Staff Workshop | February 23 | 12-1:15 p.m. | Pathways (Wine-Price)
Faculty and staff of James Madison University are invited to join us for a writing workshop with poet Sean Hill on February 23 from 12-1:15 in Pathways in the Wine-Price building at James Madison University. RSVP via email to attend.
Sean Hill: Poetry Reading | Febraury 22 | 5 p.m. | Highlands Room (Festival)
Join us for our first poetry reading of the 2024 Spring semester featuring Sean Hill, the author of Dangerous Goods, awarded the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, and Blood Ties & Brown Liquor, named one of the Ten Books All Georgians Should Read in 2015 by the Georgia Center for the Book. Hill's poems and essays have appeared in Callaloo, Harvard Review, New England Review, Orion, Oxford American, Poetry, Terrain.org, Tin House, and numerous other journals, and in almost two dozen anthologies including Black Nature and Villanelles. He has served as the director of the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference at Bemidji State University since 2012. Hill is a consulting editor at Broadsided Press, a monthly broadside publisher. He has taught at several universities, including at the University of Alaska – Fairbanks and Georgia Southern University as an Assistant Professor.
The reading will be held on Thursday, February 22 at 5 p.m. in the Highlands Room in the Festival Conference & Student Center at James Madison University and virtually via Facebook Live. The recording will be uploaded to YouTube the following day.
First Fridays at Furious Flower Broadside Gallery | February 2 | 5-7 p.m. | Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr.
Join us for the first Arts Council of the Valley First Friday Downtown Art Tour reception of 2024 featuring the debut of our sixth exhibition, Shades of Strength: Black Women's Resistance, curated by Furious Flower Carmen R. Gillespie Fellows India Williams and Taylor Nauflett on Friday, February 2 from 5-7 p.m. at Furious Flower Poetry Center, Cardinal House, 500 Cardinal Dr. Light refreshments provided. Free and open to the public.
Mahogany L. Browne: Poetry Reading
On April 4, 2024, JMU Honors College and Furious Flower held a poetry reading featuring Mahogany L. Browne Grafton/Stovall Theater at James Madison University. The reading and Q&A were livestreamed and recorded.
A Reading & Conversation with Shane McCrae
On March 21, 2024, JMU Creative Writing and Furious Flower held a conversation and reading with Shane McCrae and Erica Cavanagh in Wilson Auditorium at James Madison University. The reading, conversation, and Q&A were livestreamed and recorded.
Sean Hill: Poetry Reading
On February 22, 2024, Furious Flower held the first poetry reading of the Spring 2024 Reading Series featuring Sean Hill in Highlands Room in Festival Conference & Student Center at James Madison University. The reading and Q&A were livestreamed and recorded.
Tawanda Mulalu: Poetry Reading
On November 9, 2023, Furious Flower held the final poetry reading of the Fall 2023 Reading Series featuring Tawanda Mulalu in Warren 256 (The Union) at James Madison University. The reading and Q&A were livestreamed and recorded.
Safia Elhillo: Open Mic & Poetry Reading
On October 26, 2023, Furious Flower held the first open mic and poetry reading of the 2023-2024 Reading Series featuring Safia Elhillo at The Golden Pony. While the open mic portion was not recorded, the reading and the Q&A portion that follows are available on Facebook and YouTube.
Gbenga Adesina: Poetry Reading
On September 21, 2023, Furious Flower held the inaugural reading for Gbenga Adesina, Furious Flower Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in Black & Global Diasporic Poetry in the Highlands Room in Festival Conference & Student Center. It was the first event of the Fall 2023 Furious Flower Reading Series.
2023 Furious Flower Poetry Prize Reading featuring Evie Shockley
On April 20, 2023, 2023 Furious Flower Poetry Prize winner Alafia Nicole Sessions and honorable mention Marissa Davis read alongside judge Evie Shockley in Taylor, Room 405. Evie Shockley also facilitated a faculty and staff workshop at James Madison University during her stay.
Mervyn Taylor: Open Mic & Poetry Reading
On March 23, 2023, Furious Flower held an open mic and poetry reading featuring Mervyn Taylor at The Golden Pony. While the open mic portion was not recorded, the reading and the Q&A portion that follows are available on YouTube.
Shara McCallum: Poetry Reading
On February 17, 2023, Shara McCallum visited for a poetry reading with Furious Flower in collaboration with JMU's African, African American, & Diaspora (AAAD) Studies Center for the annual AAAD Conference in the Highlands Room in Festival Conference & Student Center. Shara McCallum also facilitated a faculty and staff workshop at JMU during her stay.
L. Renée: Poetry Reading
On November 10, 2022, Furious Flower held the inaugural reading for Assistant Director L. Renée in the Highlands Room in Festival Conference & Student Center. This event was the final reading of the Fall 2022 Furious Flower Reading Series.
Malika Booker: Open Mic & Poetry Reading
On September 29, 2022, Furious Flower held its first Open Mic of the 2022-2023 Furious Flower Reading Series at The Golden Pony. While the open mic portion was not recorded, the reading and the Q&A portion that follows are available on YouTube.
2022 Poetry Prize Reading featuring Tim Seibles
On April 20, 2022 in the Highlands Room at James Madison University, 2022 Furious Flower Poetry Prize winner Ariana Benson and honorable mention Benin Lemus read alongside judge Tim Seibles. The reading is followed by a brief Q&A. Tim Seibles also facilitated a faculty and staff workshop at JMU during his visit.
