Lunch and Learn returns with special guest Frank X. Walker in conversation with the Prince George's County Office of Human Rights and the Prince George's County Memorial Library System. Walk er will be discussing his latest book "Load in Nine Times: Poems." \;< /p>\n
About the book: \;
\nFor decades Frank X Walker has recl aimed essential American lives through his pathbreaking historical poetry. \;In \;this stirring new collection\, he reimagines the experienc es of Black Civil War soldiers--including his own ancestors--who enlisted& nbsp\;in \;the Union army \;in \;exchange for emancipation. Mo ving chronologically from antebellum Kentucky through Reconstruction\, Wal ker braids the voices of the United States Colored Troops with their famil y members\, as well as slave owners and prominent historical figures from Abraham Lincoln to Frederick Douglas and Margaret Garner. Imbued with atmo spheric imagery\, these persona \;poems \;and more "[clarify] not only the inextricable value of Black life and labor to the building of Ame rica\, but the terrible price they were forced to pay \;in \;produ cing that labor" (Khadijah Queen). "How do you un-orphan a people?" Walker asks. "How do you pick up / shattered black porcelain and make / a new se t of dishes fit to eat off?" While carefully attuned to the heartbreak and horrors of war\, Walker's \;poems \;pay equal care to the pride\, perseverance\, and triumphs of their speakers. Evoking the formerly ensla ved General Charles Young\, Walker hums: "I am America's promise\, my moth er's song\, / and the reason my father had every right to dream." Expansiv e and intimate\, \;Load \;in \;Nine \;Times \;is a res ounding ode to the powerful ties of individual and cultural ancestry by an indelible voice \;in \;American poetry. ~From the catalog
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About the author: \;
\nA native of Danville\, Kentucky\, Frank X Walker is the first Afr ican American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate. Walker has publis hed thirteen collections of poetry\, including "Turn Me Loose: The Unghost ing of Medgar Evers\," which was awarded the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Po etry and the Black Caucus American Library Association Honor Award for Poe try. He is also the author of "Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York\," winne r of the 2004 Lillian Smith Book Award\, and "Isaac Murphy: I Dedicate Thi s Ride\," which he adapted for stage\, earning him the Paul Green Foundati on Playwrights Fellowship Award. His poetry was also dramatized for the 20 16 Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown\, WV and staged by Message Theater for the 2015 Breeders Cup Festival. A lover of comics\ , Walker curated &ldquo\;We Wear the Mask: Black Superheroes through the A ges\,&rdquo\; an exhibit of his personal collection of action figures\, co mics\, and related memorabilia at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Cent er in 2015\; he reprised the exhibit in 2018 at Purdue University and West ern Carolina University. Walker recently returned to the world of visual a rt with a collection of new and early multimedia works\, &ldquo\;Black Sta r Seed: When Mi Cyaan Find Di Words&rdquo\; which was on exhibit at the Ca rnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington.
\nVoted one of the most creative professors in the south\, Walker coined the term &ldquo \;Affrilachia&rdquo\; and co- founded the Affrilachian Poets\, subsequentl y publishing the much-celebrated eponymous collection. His honors also inc lude a 2004 Lannan Literary Fellowship for Poetry\, the 2008 and 2009 Denn y C. Plattner Award for Outstanding Poetry in Appalachian Heritage\, the 2 013 West Virginia Humanities Council&rsquo\;s Appalachian Heritage Award\, as well as fellowships and residences with Cave Canem\, the National Endo wment for the Humanities\, and the Kentucky Arts Council. In 2020 Walker r eceived the Donald Justice Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Souther n Writers. The recipient of honorary doctorates from University of Kentuck y\, Transylvania University\, Spalding University and Centre College\, Wal ker is the founding editor of \;pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Art s &\; Culture \;and serves as Professor of English and African Amer ican and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. His most recent collection is "Masked Man\, Black: Pandemic &\; Protest Poe ms."
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