Alison Hedge Coke
Reynolds Endowed Chair, 308.865.8672
UNK- The Reynolds Series at the University of Nebraska at Kearney will present three Cave Canem Fellows reading their poetry at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 19, in the Nebraskan Student Union Sandhills Room.
The three include Makalani Bandele, Glenn North and Timothy Black–an author of jazz literature, a cowboy poet and a performer of poetry, according to Allison Hedge Coke, UNK Reynolds Chair in Poetry.
“Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets,” Hedge Coke said.
Bandele is from Louisville, Ky. An ordained minister, he has won the Ernest Sandeen Prize for Poetry. His poetry has been published in “Mythium Literary Magazine” and will be included in an upcoming issue of the “African-American Review.” He has a book that will be published by Willow Books for release next fall. In addition, he is currently working on a volume of poetry based on the recordings and travels of Alan Lomax in the deep south. Bandele is a member of the Affrilachian Poets.
North’s career as a spoken word artist began in 1997 when he founded Verbal Attack, a monthly open mic poetry event. He is the director of the Urban Transcendence Poetry Project where his duties include facilitating poetry writing and performance workshops for youth in Wyandotte County as well as the adjudicated youth in Jackson County detention centers. Currently, he is the Poet-in-Residence at the American Jazz Museum, where he organizes and hosts the popular open mic poetry competition, Jazz Poetry Jams. He is also working toward the completion of his first volume of poetry titled, “Fortunate Ad-Verse-ity.”
Black’s first poetic novella, “Connecticut Shade,” is in its second printing through WSC Press. He teaches poetry at Wayne State College and is a Cave Canem Fellow. His work has appeared in “The Logan House Anthology of 21st Century American Poetry,” “The Great American Roadshow” and “Words Like Rain.” He has also been published in “The Platte Valley Review,” a UNK publication, and at bringtheink.com. He has poems forthcoming in “Breadcrumb Scabs,” “Clean Sheets” and “Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine.” He has won an Academy of American Poets’ Helen W. Kenewick prize for his poem “Heavy Freight.” Currently, he is working with Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn on a book of interviews and a portable poetry workshop. He hold an MFA in Poetry from the NU Low Residency MFA Program cohort of UNK and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He lives in Wakefield.
