The Craft of Blackness ft. Derrick Austin & jzl jmz

Event 1 in CAAPP’s newest Black Study—THE CRAFT OF BLACKNESS — ft. Derrick Austin & jzl jms in creative conversation. Our esteemed guests will share new work and participate in a moderated conversation.

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Jzl Jmz (FKA JAYY DODD) aka [Lady Tournament] beamed down in Los Angeles ’92 & is reuploading herself to the internet. Her professional career includes positions at Blavity, The Offing, Winter Tangerine & more. She’s been featured in the LA Times, Poetry Magazine, Oprah Magazine, Ms. Magazine, PEN America, Willamette Weekly, The New York Public Library & several anthologies. She’s the author of Mannish Tongues (Platypus Press 2017) & The 2021 Poetry Center Book Prize-winning: The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat 2019). She curated Beyond Special Issue (a collective critique on tokenism in (Trans*) poetry) & THEE SPACE Poetry Prize with Shade Literary Arts. She’s editing Bettering American Poetry Vol. 2 (Bettering Books 2017) A Portrait in Blues (Platypus Press 2019) & Her film & performance works have been installed & screened across the country from classrooms to museums. She has been a Lambda Literary Fellow, and Precipice Art Grant Recipient through Portland’s Institute of Contemporary Art & Artist-in-Residence at Ori Gallery. She’s an occasional rapper & founder of Tournament.Haus Mutual Aid Fund. Find her talking slick or in another dimension.

Derrick Austin is the author of Tenderness (BOA Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, and Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016) selected by Mary Szybist for the A. Poulin Jr, Poetry Prize. His first chapbook, Black Sand, was published by Foundlings Press in 2022. His debut collection was honored as a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and the Norma Faber First Book Award. Tenderness was a finalist for a Golden Poppy Award, Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and a Northern California Book Award. His honors include fellowships from Cave Canem, the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing, and Stanford University. He is currently serving as a 2022-2023 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholar.

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The Center for African American Poetry & Poetics’ (CAAPP)  series, The Craft of Blackness,  is a week-long collection of events in our Black Study series that sets out to highlight and consider ties between Blackness and craft in poetics and art-making.

The two-part series runs from Tuesday October 17th, 2023 through Thursday October 19th, 2023 and features Derrick Austin, Luther Hughes, Major Jackson, jzl jmz & Omotara James.

We hope you’ll join us for the entire series! More info can be found at caapp.pitt.edu.

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CAAPP’s programming is made possible by the generous support of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of the Arts & Sciences and The Dietrich Foundation.