Poetry

Tyehimba Jess

Past Event: Sunday, March 4, 2018

At McCaw Hall — Nesholm Family Lecture Hall

Presented in partnership with the Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry

This series is sponsored by Charles B. & Barbara Wright

To be able to sing under that kind of oppression I think, in a lot of ways, is the very essence of survival, of a people, of the ability to have the hope to make something beautiful amongst so much wretchedness.

— Tyehimba Jess

The book is unmistakably a book of brilliant poetry, but it also has the feel of an encyclopedia. Not in the sense of weight, or language, but the mere presence of its existence is encyclopedic. In walking away from reading Olio, history has been reclaimed and redefined.

— The Rumpus

A daring collection, which blends forthright, musically acute language with portraiture.

— Library Journal

Tyehimba Jess is the author of two powerful, musically-inspired books of poetry: leadbelly, about the musician of the same name, and last year’s Olio, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize.

The event will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Anastacia Renée, Seattle’s Civic Poet.

leadbelly, which explores the life and times of the legendary blues musician through a biography in poems, was named one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005” by both Library Journaland Black Issues Book Review, and Publishers Weekly noted that “the collection’s strength lies in its contradictory forms; from biography to lyric to hard-driving prose poem, boast to song, all are soaked in the rhythm and dialect of Southern blues and the demands of honoring one’s talent.”

Olio, published by Wave Books last year, presents the stories behind America’s blues, worksongs, and church hymns. The collection weaves sonnet, song, and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers directly before and after the Civil War, up to World War I, and is an effort to understand how these performers met, resisted, and complicated attempts to minstrelize them.

A two-time member of the Chicago Green Mill Slam team, Jess was also Chicago’s Poetry Ambassador to Accra, Ghana. His work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including Soulfires: Young Black Men in Love and Violence, Slam: The Competitive Art ofPerformance Poetry, and Dark Matter 2: Reading the Bones. He is the author of AfricanAmerican Pride: Celebrating Our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy.

In addition to his Pulitzer Prize and National Poetry Series award, Jess’s accomplishments include a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award. A former artist-in-residence with Cave Canem, Jess has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown, as well as a Lannan Writing Residency.

Born in Detroit, Jess earned a BA from the University of Chicago and an MFA from New York University. He has taught at the Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and at the College of Staten Island in New York City. As of 2017, he teaches poetry and fiction at CUNY College of Staten Island and is the faculty adviser for Caesura, the University’s literary arts magazine.

Selected Works:

Olio (2016)
leadbelly (2005)

Anastacia Renée Tolbert is a queer writer of color, performance artist, creative writing workshop facilitator and activist. She is the current Civic Poet of Seattle and former 2015-2017 Poet-in-Residence at Richard Hugo House. She has received writing fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Artist Trust and Jack Straw, as well as a writing residency from Ragdale. Her theatrical mixed-media project, 9 Ounces: A One Woman Show, is a multivalent play unapologetically downward dogging its way through class, race, culture, oppression, depression, survival and epiphany. Anastacia-Renee is the Author of Forget It (Black Radish Books), (v.), (Gramma Press) 26, (Dancing Girl Press), and Kiss Me Doll Face (Gramma Press). Answer(Me) (Winged City Chapbooks, Argus Press) is forthcoming in September 2017. Her work has appeared in: Revise the Psalm, Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, Split this Rock, Painted Bride Quarterly, Crab Creek Review, Seattle Review, Bone Bouquet, Duende, Synaethesia, Banqueted and many more.

Video

The Writers House at Merrimack College: Tyehimba Jess Reads Olio

“The new schoolmaster came to say / that piano was to stay clear of black / hands and our unlearned ways.”

Asian American Writers' Workshop: Tyehimba Jess Reads "Freedsong: Dream Song"

“What he has now to say is a long / wonder the world can bear and see.”

The Migration Series Poetry Suite: Tyehimba Jess Reads "Another Man Done"

“They were arrested at the slightest provocation.”

Event Details

McCaw Hall — Nesholm Family Lecture Hall

321 Mercer St
Seattle, WA 98109

View directions.

This event will be held in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall. The Lecture Hall is located in the lower level of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. The entrance to the hall is on the north side of the building and east of the main entrance; it directly faces Mercer St. and the door is under the bridge to the Mercer Street Garage.

By Car

From I-5
Take Mercer Street exit (exit 167) and go straight onto Mercer Street westbound. Turn right onto 4th Avenue. Turn left to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage.
From Aurora/Hwy 99 Northbound
Take the Western Avenue exit. Continue straight on Western Avenue. Turn right onto Battery Street. Turn left onto 1st Avenue. Turn right on Mercer Street. Continue down Mercer Street to drop off patrons directly in front of McCaw Hall, or turn left on 3rd or 4th Avenues to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage.
From Aurora/Hwy 99 Southbound
Exit right on Roy Street. Turn left on 3rd Avenue North. Turn left to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage or proceed to the corner of 3rd Avenue and Mercer Street, turn left and proceed immediately to the far right lane to drop off patrons directly in front of McCaw Hall.

By Bus
Bus routes with Seattle Center stops include: 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 24, 33, and 82. For more information about the routes nearest you, call Metro’s 24-hour Rider Information hotline at (206) 553-3000 or visit Metro online.

Parking
Parking is available at the Mercer Street Garage, conveniently located across the street from McCaw Hall. A covered skybridge provides easy access between level C of the garage and McCaw Hall.

Other garages and parking options are:

Fisher Plaza Garage, located in the KOMO Plaza on 4th Avenue N, between Broad St and John St. The entrance is at 451 John St. The quickest way to get to McCaw Hall from here is to walk across the Seattle Center campus, starting from the Space Needle. SAL offers a $5 voucher for this garage. Vouchers may be picked up at SAL’s box office or info table.
5th Avenue North Garage, located at the corner of 5th Avenue and Harrison Street. This is the first garage you will encounter after exiting I-5 and turning onto Harrison Street. It is a 3-block walk to McCaw Hall from this garage.
Surface lots are available on either side of Mercer Street between 3rd and 1st Avenues.
Southwest Seattle Center garages, for those willing and able to make the short walk across the Seattle Center campus, there are garages located on 1st Avenue North between Thomas and John Streets (south of KeyArena), at the corner of Warren Avenue North and Denny Way (adjacent to the church), and on 2nd Avenue North and Denny Way (adjacent to Pacific Science Center).

All of our venues have accessible seating and listening devices available. Click here for more information about accessibility and ADA services at McCaw Hall.

Please contact us at sal@lectures.org or 206.621.2230 x10 for more details and to let us know you’re coming so we can better accommodate your needs.

Seating Chart