ABOUT THE PARTNERSHIP

A collaboration of the Black Unicorn Library and Archives Project and the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP), the PPP aims to:

- Support the work, practices, and aspirations of local poets of color, especially those who want serious encounters and dialogue for their work, but for whom the structures and environs of university pedagogy may not be convenient or healthy;

- Celebrate, honor, and center the knowledge, skills, pedagogies, and creative practices of Pittsburgh poets of color working outside of traditional academic spaces;

- Initiate avenues for mutual resource sharing and exchanges of ideas, influences, processes, pedagogies, and opportunities for writers from various areas of practice;

- Build creative community for poets who may not have one;

- Further reparative efforts to address inequitable distribution of resources between university-centered and off-campus communities, especially affecting poets of color;

- Explore sustainable models for future collaborations of this kind;

- Build upon the legacy of earlier black writers at the University of Pittsburgh who have aimed to serve their communities both on and off campus, specifically through the formation of Africana Studies, Rob Penny’s co-founding of the Kuntu Writers Workshop, and Toi Derricotte’s co-founding of Cave Canem.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

The workshop will meet weekly on Wednesdays, 6-8pm, at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Hill District Branch from January to April of 2020, over 10-12 sessions. In case of inclement weather, sessions will be rescheduled. The workshop will be structured for continuity; ideally, poets will attend every workshop meeting, with each session building off of previous sessions. At the end of the workshop, we hope to compile a zine of poems, hold a public reading and performance in celebration, and possibly organize a public art effort. THERE IS NO COST TO PARTICIPATING.

This workshop is for Black and Brown poets. We welcome people ages 18+ of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexual orientations. In reviewing applications, we will prioritize participants who are not enrolled in a four-year college or graduate program and who do not teach at any college or university. Workshop sessions will be led, on rotation, by Lauren Russell and Justin Phillip Reed of CAAPP, as well as by guest teaching artists including Dani Janae, Corrine Jasmin, Joy KMT, and Christina Springer.