Poets on Craft: Cheryl Boyce-Taylor & Christian Campbell

In this intimate meeting-of-the-minds, hear two exceptional poets, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor and Christian Campbell, read from and discuss their work. A finalist for the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is the author of four poetry collections, most recently, Arrival (Northwestern University Press, 2017), praised by Kimiko Hahn as “A stunning contribution to contemporary poetry!” Poet, essayist and scholar, Christian Campbell is the author of Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree Press, 2010), winner of the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and described by Elizabeth Alexander as “A truly auspicious debut by a brilliant young writer.” Cave Canem fellow, performer and creative writing educator, Samantha Thornhill moderates. Free and open to the public. Refreshments served. Co-sponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Department.

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet curator and workshop facilitator. A finalist for the 2018 Paterson Poetry Prize, and a judge for The Maureen Egan 2018 Poetry Prize. Cheryl has just completed a memoir titled, Mama Phife Represents, in honor of her son Hip Hop Legend, Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor. Additionally, she has authored four collections of poetry: Raw Air (Night Press, 1997), Night When Moon Follows (Long Shot Productions, 2000), Convincing the Body (Vintage Entity Press, 2005) and Arrival (Northwestern University Press, 2017). A VONA Fellow, her work has been published in: Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Pluck, The Mom Egg Review, Adrienne and Killens Review of Arts & Letters. Cheryl earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast; The University of Southern Maine. She curates the Calypso Muse Reading Series in New York City.

Christian Campbell is a Trinidadian Bahamian poet, essayist and scholar. He is the author of the widely acclaimed poetry collection Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree Press, 2010), which won the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was a finalist for the Forward Prize for the Best First Collection and the Cave Canem Prize, among other awards. Running the Dusk was translated into Spanish by Aida Bahr and published in Cuba as Correr el Crepúsculo (2015). Campbell studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and his work has been published, featured or reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, Small Axe, The Financial Times and elsewhere. He recently appeared on Democracy Now to address issues of climate change and colonialism.  Campbell delivered the annual lecture in honour of Derek Walcott for Nobel Laureate Week and was an invited poet at Poetry Parnassus for the Cultural Olympiad of London’s Olympic Games. He has contributed to numerous books on visual artists for major international exhibits and won the Art Writing Award from the Ontario Association for Art Galleries for his work on Jean-Michel Basquiat. He is the narrator of Jongué, a nomad’s journey, a new film by Carlos Ferrand on the photographer Serge Emmanuel Jongué. He is currently Writer-in-Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Samantha Thornhill is a US-based poet, creative writing educator, and published author from Trinidad and Tobago. Formerly a poetry instructor at the Juilliard School, Poets & Writers, and Cooper Union, she has been teaching a spectrum of students across New York City for over a decade. Known for her versatility as a writer and performer, this Cave Canem and University of Virginia alum is frequently invited to share her work at festivals and university events, nationally and globally. Her poems have been published in dozens of anthologies, journals and digital outlets. Her third children’s book, A Card For My Father (2018), was published by Penny Candy Books.