Poetry and Race: A Reading and Discussion

Poetry and Race: A Reading and Discussion with Jaswinder Bolina, Mia Leonin, Geoffrey Philp, and Donna Weir-Soley, presented by O, Miami and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science in conjunction with the exhibition, RACE: Are We So Different? 

Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science (map)

3280 S Miami Ave

Miami, FL 33133

Thursday, April 10, 2014

6:00pm – 8:00pm

Jaswinder Bolina is an American poet and essayist. He is author of the collections Phantom Camera, winner of the 2012 Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues Press, and Carrier Wave, winner of the 2006 Colorado Prize for Poetry from the Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including being selected for The Best American Poetry. Bolina currently teaches on the M.F.A. faculty at the University of Miami.

Mia Leonin is the author of two books of poetry Braid (Anhinga Press) andUnraveling the Bed (forthcoming from Anhinga Press). She has been awarded an Academy of American Poets Prize and her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Leonin’s poetry has been published inNew Letters, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Chelsea and Witness.

Geoffrey Philp, author of the e-book, Bob Marley and Bradford’s iPod, has also written five collections of poetry, two children's e-books,and two short story collections. An award winning writer, whose work explores the themes of masculinity and fatherhood in a Caribbean context, Philp is one of the few writers whose work has been published in the Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories and the Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. His popular blog, geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com, covers literary events in the Caribbean and Miami, where he lives with wife, Nadia, and their three children, Anna, Christina, and Andrew.

Dr. Donna Aza Weir-Soley is originally from Jamaica. She is currently an Associate Professor of English, African & African Diaspora Studies and Women's Studies at Florida International University. Dr. Weir-Soley is both a Mellon and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She is the author of a poetry collection, First Rain (Peepal Tree Press, 2006), a scholarly text, Eroticism, Spirituality and Resistance in Black Women's Writings (University Press of Florida, 2009), and co-editor (with Opal Palmer Adisa) of Caribbean Erotic (Peepal Tree Press, 2010), an anthology of poetry, fiction and essays which includes the work of 62 writers from the English-speaking, Spanish-speaking and French-speaking Caribbean.