Cave Canem Celebrates 10 YEARS! Oct 12 -14, 2006 NYC

When folks come together and birth a vision, nurture it and in so doing nurture an intergenerational group of poets of African descent, you gotta put a hand in the air and say "Aché" or "Amen" or "Right On" or "Cool dat" or "baby, that's sayin' somethin' "! Or make up some improvised praise-song riff. You can do all that and more during the Cave Canem celebrations this week. As I've noted in various post I know or have performed with and love the work of a number of Cave Canem fellows. A diverse group of multi-talented folks, they are everywhere--you might know one and not even know it!

Here's the schedule. I am so blue that I won't be able to hear Mendi + Keith Obadike and others do their thing on New Media and Poetry (I have a group performance commitment at the Ear to the Earth Festival). Just the description of this panel had me wondering what exactly was this genre, is it a "new" genre, a hybrid...Something that's been there all along that just got named?

Ain't that the way of the world...

If you want the pretty form of the info below go to the Cave Canem website, and get ticket info as well well, just go there anyway cause everybody should know what Cave Canem is and what they do. Here's the anniversary celebration schedule:

October 12-14, 2006 — New York City

• Thursday, October 12 •

Location: CUNY Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Avenue (34th Street)
7:00 pm — Cave Canem Prize Winners Reading

Hosted by Sonia Sanchez, featuring Constance Quarterman Bridges, Kyle Dargan, Major Jackson, Tracy K. Smith, Amber Flora Thomas and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

• Friday, October 13 •
Location: CUNY Graduate Center, Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Avenue (34th Street)
1:00 - 4:30 pm — Panels
1:00 - 2:30 The Master's Tools: Aesthetics and Poetry of the African Diaspora — Moderated by Farah Griffin, with Elizabeth Alexander, James DeJongh, Yusef Komunyakaa, Greg Tate
1:00 - 2:30 S/HE/IT: The Poetics of Gender — Moderated by Nagueyalti Warren, with Jan Clausen, Nikky Finney, Tyehimba Jess
3:00 - 4:30 Blackness and the Sounds of Other Colors: New Media and African American Poetics — Moderated by Evie Shockley, with Tonya Foster, Duriel Harris, Mendi + Keith Obadike
3:00 - 4:30 The Politics of Poetry — Moderated by Tracie Morris, with Miguel Algarin, Nuar Alsadir, Elena Georgiou, and Erica Hunt
5:00 pm — Founders Day Gala Reception & Silent Auction
Join Cave Canem faculty, fellows and Poetry Prize winners for food, wine and jazz, plus a rare opportunity to bid on treasures donated by Honorary Committee members and friends including Bill T. Jones, Tony Kushner, Sharon Olds and Cornel West.
6:45 pm — Keynote Address by Walter Mosley
7:00 pm — Cave Canem Faculty Reading

With Elizabeth Alexander, Cyrus Cassells, Lucille Clifton, Kwame Dawes, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Nikky Finney, Erica Hunt, Harryette Mullen, Marilyn Nelson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sonia Sanchez, Tim Seibles, Afaa Weaver, and Al Young

• Saturday, October 14 •
Fellows Reunion (Cave Canem Fellows Only)
Location: The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th Street (Second Avenue)
11:00 am - 1:00 pm — Brunch (Cave Canem Fellows Only)
1:00 pm - 4:30 pm — Panels (Cave Canem Fellows Only)
• 1:00 pm Inner Workings — Moderated by Phebus Etienne, with Gloria Burgess, Ross Gay, Jacqueline Johnson, Dante Micheaux, and Ronaldo V. Wilson
•1:00 pm Outer Workings — Moderated by John Keene, with Douglas Kearney, Cherryl Floyd-Miller, Greg Pardlo, giovanni singleton, and Yolanda Wisher

7:00 pm — Cave Canem Fellows Reading (Open to the Public)
Location: LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street (Seventh Avenue)
$10 at the door, open bar 6-7pm

• Sunday, October 15 •
1:00 pm — Cave Canem Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Queer-identified Faculty and Fellows Reading (Open to the Public)
Location: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard. Free

Ticket information and pricing