Live it, Write it, Teach it is the
theme of the second African American Literature Conference to be held
November 18 and 19 at Ferrum College. Affrilachian poet and multidisciplinary
artist Frank X. Walker will be the keynote speaker of this year’s
conference.
Walker is the former assistant director of
the Black Cultural Center at
Purdue University, where he served as writer in residence for
the Haraka Writers and worked with student performance ensembles in
dance, drama and choral music. He is currently assistant professor
of English and interim director of the African/African-American studies
program at Eastern Kentucky University. He has lectured, conducted
workshops, read poetry and exhibited at over 250 national conferences
and universities including the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry, Northern
Ireland; Santiago, Cuba; University of California at Berkeley; Notre
Dame; Louisiana State University at Alexandria; University of Washington;
Virginia Tech; Radford University; and Appalachian State University.
Walker's administrative background includes
working as the program coordinator at the Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural
Center at the University of Kentucky and being the founder and executive
director of the Bluegrass Black Arts Consortium, the former home of
Message Theatre and the Affrilachian Poets. He has also served as
an artist-in-residence for the Alabama State Arts Council and as director
of the NIA Institute in Birmingham, where he coordinated the curriculum
and activities for youth summer camps in Birmingham, Atlanta and Lexington,
KY.
A founding member of the Affrilachian Poets,
he is the author of Affrilachia, a collection of poems that has recently
been nominated for the Kentucky Public Librarians' Choice Award. Walker
has recently completed two new poetry collections — Black Box and
Buffalo Dance, the Journey of York. Buffalo Dance is written in the
voice of York, the slave who accompanied his master, William Clark,
on the Lewis & Clark
expedition.
The conference is held in conjunction with
the African American Literature class being taught at Ferrum this
semester by Dr. Katherine Grimes, associate professor of English.
Grimes designed the course at Ferrum over ten years ago. In collaboration
with the Office of Multicultural Education, the conference seeks to
give students in the course the opportunity to present papers about
the culture and writings of noted African Americans.
In addition to student papers and posters
and a reading and keynote address by Frank X Walker, this year’s conference
will offer a children’s literature session as well as a panel discussion
on rap music and the African American literary tradition.
The conference will begin Friday evening
at 7:00 with student poster presentations followed by readings from
works of Frank X Walker at 7:30 in Grousbeck Hall. A reception and
book signing will follow. Saturday activities begin at 9:30 a.m. with
student presentations and a panel discussion. The luncheon keynote
speech with Frank X Walker will begin at 12:30, concurrently with
the children’s literature interactive session. The conference is free
and open to the public. Lunch will be provided by ticket only. Call
365-4352 before November 14 to request your lunch ticket.
For more information, contact Bettye Buckingham, Ferrum’s director
of multicultural education, at 365-4352.
Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational,
liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree
programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges.
For more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.
