In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries invite you to join us on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. via Zoom for Creating Your Own Archive: Research, Roots and Reclamation in Remica Bingham-Risher’s Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions that Grew Me Up and Room Swept Home, presented by Remica Bingham-Risher, Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University.
For many of the marginalized, especially those who turn to art and research as their means of finding their place in the world, one question that looms large is: who is left out of the archive? In her memoir about cultivating a writing life and her latest book of photographs and poems re-tracing family history, Remica Bingham-Risher looks at poetry as a kind of genealogy. She will read from her work, discuss her exploration of public and private histories as well as how this work helps redefine what an artist thinks they know about their own story.
About the author
Remica Bingham-Risher, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is an alumna of Old Dominion University and Bennington College. She is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Among other journals, her work has been published in the New York Times, the Writer’s Chronicle, New Letters, Callaloo and Essence. She is the author of Conversion (Lotus, 2006) winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, What We Ask of Flesh (Etruscan, 2013) shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award and Starlight & Error (Diode, 2017) winner of the Diode Editions Book Award. Her first book of prose, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books and Questions that Grew Me Up, was published by Beacon Press in 2022. Her next book of poems, Room Swept Home, was published by Wesleyan in February 2024. She is currently the Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University and resides in Norfolk, VA with her husband and children.
Please register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session led by Professor Bob Watts (English Department). This event is free and open to the public.
Visit LTS News for information about all our National Poetry Month events.
Co-sponsored by The Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries, Lehigh University Department of English, Lehigh University Creative Writing Program, and Lehigh University Africana Studies Program.