On Sunday, March 20 and Monday, March 21, the University of Pittsburgh Press and the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics cohosted a major event about poetry and race in America. The Monday evening event featured a panel and reading moderated by Terrance Hayes which included Toi Derricotte, Ross Gay, Rickey Laurentiis, Nate Marshall, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, and Afaa Michael Weaver.

Terrance Hayes, University of Pittsburgh professor—who, along with Dawn Martin Lundy, cofounded and codirects the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics— commented, “In light of recent events in Ferguson, New York, and Baltimore that have once again revealed systemic police violence against African Americans, this opportunity to offer a public venue to present the artistic engagement of poets could not be more timely, or powerful.”

“When we think of ‘social problems’ and the academy,” said Press Director Peter Kracht,  “it’s natural to think of the important work of sociologists, political scientists, economists, and other social scientists. But the humanities such as art, music, creative writing, and poetry, also engage with social issues, often very powerfully.”

The full video of the event is available for viewing.

If you’re attending AWP’s Conference & Bookfair, you can find the University of Pittsburgh Press at table 403. Terrance Hayes is taking part in two events: “Turning into Dwelling: A Tribute to Christopher Gilbert” on Thursday, March 31 at 1:30 pm, and “The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems of Larry Levis” on Saturday, April 2, at 4;30 p.m. Toi Derricotte is a part of “(Still) Got the Juice: Fierce Writing by Women Poets of a Certain Age” on Saturday, April 2, at 3:00 p.m. Ross Gay will read in the From the Fishouse reading on Saturday, April 2, at 12:00 noon. Rickey Laurentiis is on the Queertopia or Bust panel on Thursday, March 31, at 12:00 noon. Nate Marshall takes part in “Publishing Poets of Color” on Saturday, April 2, at 3:00 p.m. Afaa Michael Weaver can be found at two events on Saturday, April 2: the Reading by Kingsley and Kate Tufts winners at 10:30 a.m., and “Translating the Sacred in a Postreligious Age” at 12:00 noon.

Additionally, The University of Pittsburgh Press is celebrating its eightieth year of publishing. And it has been a banner past 12 months for Pitt poets. Ross Gay won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Award for Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (also a National Book Award finalist). That book and Nate Marshall’s Wild Hundreds were named finalists for the 2015 NAACP Image Awards. Wild Hundreds was the winner of the 2014 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Rickey Laurentiis’ Boy with Thorn won the 2014 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

The Press publishes contemporary poetry through the Pitt Poetry Series, which includes winners of the AWP Award Series’ Donald Hall Prize for Poetry.

Image Credit: The University of Pittsburgh Press.