This year’s theme, “a matter of gathering,” takes its name from part of the title of the latest collection of poetry by this year’s featured author, Dawn Lundy Martin, A Gathering of Matter / A Matter of Gathering. We like how the phrase captures what we do every year at the African American Read-In, which is itself a matter of gathering works by Black authors and gathering together to read them together.
The Sunday Community Dinner Program was held on February 21, 2010
Student MC: Marquis Vaughn
Student Vocalist: Ida Ricks
Dance Performance: Penn State Altoona African Student Association
The Monday Marathon Open Mic was held Monday, February 22nd, from 9AM-5PM
Special Features and Performances:
Demonstration of the Cakewalk performed by KT Huckabee’s tap class
Dance Performance of “Freedom” choreographed and performed by Victoria Campbell
Original Poetry by Brytelle Walton and Mike Watson
Reader’s Theater Performance of African American Literature for Children from the language arts and literacy education program of Penn State Altoona
Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, poetry reading
The JiveBombers performing blues and roots music
2010 AARI Student Artist: Gee Wesley
Featured Author: Dawn Lundy Martin
Dawn Lundy Martin was awarded the 2006 Cave Canem Poetry Prize by Carl Phillips for her manuscript, A Gathering of Matter/A Matter of Gathering (University of Georgia Press, 2007). She is also the author of The Morning Hour, selected in 2003 by C.D. Wright for the Poetry Society of America’s National Chapbook Fellowship. Among her many honors include Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grants for Poetry in 2002 and 2006 and the 2008 Academy of American Arts and Sciences May Sarton Prize for Poetry. Excerpts from her new manuscript, DISCIPLINE, can be found in Deadalus, Tuesday: An Art Project, Hambone and Jubilat. She is a founding member of the Black Took Collective, a group of experimental black poets; co-editor of a collection of essays, The Fire This Time: Young Activists And The New Feminism (Anchor Books, 2004); and a founder of the Third Wave Foundation in New York, a national young feminist organization. She is an assistant professor of English in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
The 2010 AARI Faculty and Staff Committee
Dr. Yaw Agawu-Kakraba, Associate Professor of Spanish
Dr. Kirstin Bratt, Assistant Professor of Education
Ms. Harriett Gaston, DUS Coordinator of Minority Programs
Dr. Jutta Gsoels-Lorensen, Assistant Professor of German, English, and Comparative Literature
Robin Reese, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts
Dr. Megan Simpson, Associate Professor of English and Women’s Studies
Sponsors
We thank the following Penn State Altoona offices and programs for their financial support of the 2010 AARI:
Dr. Lori J. Bechtel-Wherry, Chancellor
The Letters Arts and Sciences Program
The Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity
The Division of Arts and Humanities
The Altoona College Honors Program
With additional support from The Blair County NAACP