Yes, And: Poems of Inquiry and Fruition with Yona Harvey:
How do we meet the goals for our poems without abandoning the scared and mysterious qualities within us, within our artistic practices, and within the poems themselves? Perhaps the answer lies in investigating our goals and their origin stories: Are they rooted in “sources of power and care” or in a facile acceptance of what we’ve been told we should be writing? Though not religious in nature, this talk will draw upon a few sacred texts and writings of spiritual thinkers. Poems by Lucille Clifton, Yusef Komunyakaa, Cherene Sherrard, and Crystal Williams will be discussed.

“Sprezzatura” and the Beauty of B.H. Fairchild: A Short Talk on the Long Poem with John Murillo:
In men’s fashion, there exists a term, “sprezzatura,” that is used to describe a manner of dress that exhibits a rakish cool, a naturalness, what French fashion writer Hugo Jacomet calls a “calculated nonchalance.” The effect of sprezzatura is to appear elegant without drawing attention to the effort involved in achieving said elegance. In his exquisitely crafted tour de force, “Beauty,” poet B.H. Fairchild exemplifies this often-misunderstood concept, and in doing so, offers us a master class in style as well as in writing the long poem. In this talk, we will examine some of the elements at play in Fairchild’s poem and what it has to teach us about the relationship between art, artifice, and artlessness. Q & A will follow.