46.3 F
Clarksville
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeArts/LeisurePoet Afaa Michael Weaver to read at APSU

Poet Afaa Michael Weaver to read at APSU

Update: Tonight’s poetry reading with Afaa Michael Weaver has been cancelled due to hazardous conditions on campus.

The APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center present a poetry reading by distinguished poet, translator, and playwright Afaa Michael Weaver at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 1, in the Morgan University Center, Room 303, on the campus of Austin Peay.

Afaa Michael Weaver
Afaa Michael Weaver

Weaver was born in 1951 in Baltimore, Md., to working class parents. He attended public schools and graduated as a National Merit finalist at the age of 16. After two years at the University of Maryland, he entered the world of factory life alongside his father and uncles and remained a factory worker for 15 years. These years were a literary apprenticeship during which he wrote and published poetry, short fiction, and freelance journalism. During that time he also started 7th Son Press and Blind Alleys, a literary journal.

His first book of poetry, “Water Song,” was published in 1985 as part of the Callaloo series. He received a NEA fellowship for poetry six months after signing the contract for the collections and left factory life to accept admission into Brown University’s graduate writing program on a full university fellowship, where he completed the M.A. with a focus on theater and playwriting. Concurrently, he completed his B.A. in Literature in English through Excelsior College.

Weaver has been a Pew fellow in poetry and taught in National Taiwan University and Taipei National University of the Arts in Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar. At Simmons College in Boston, Mass., he is the Alumnae Professor of English and director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center. In addition, he is Chairman of the Simmons International Chinese Poetry Conference.

RELATED ARTICLES

Latest Articles