Session details
Wednesday 11 September, 18:00
Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS)
Join us in-person for Session III, with Haitian American, Black poet, translator, and editor Danielle Legros Georges (joining remotely) and South African poet and series curator Maneo Mohale.
As space is extremely limited (max 20), RSVP is essential.
Note: please engage with the suggested readings in advance:
Poem for the Poorest Country in the Western Hemisphere
Danielle Legros Georges
O poorest country, this is not your name.
You should be called beacon. You should
be called flame. Almond and bougainvillea,
garden and green mountain, villa and hut,
girl with red ribbons in her hair,
books under arm, charmed by the light
of morning, charcoal seller in black skirt,
encircled by dead trees. You, country,
are merchant woman and eager clerk,
grandfather at the gate, at the crossroads
with the flashlight, with all in sight.
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link to the poem on Poets.org
Danielle Legros Georges is a poet, translator, and editor whose work has been supported by fellowships and grants from organizations including the American Antiquarian Society, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Boston Foundation, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. Appointed Boston’s Poet Laureate in 2014, she served in the role for four years.
Her books include Maroon (2001); Island Heart, translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French poet Ida Faubert (2021); and the anthologies: Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters (2023) and Blue Flare: Three Haitian Poets (2024).
Image credit: Jennifer Waddell