Every Thursday at 5pm from June 29 – August 10, join us for Community Voices: Poets Speak, Bay Area Cave Canem poets reflect on themes of our current exhibition. Now on view, The Ease of Fiction presents the work of four African artists living in the United States as the foundation of a critical discussion about history, fact and fiction. The readings and discussion of original work will take place in the gallery for a maximum of 30 minutes.

The series culminates with a reception and an evening of poetry by the participating poets on Thursday, August 17, 6:30-8pm.

Free Admission.

Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

‍Community Voices: Poets Speak is curated by Arisa White, poet, writer & educator.

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Charif Shanahan

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Charif Shanahan is the author of Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (SIU Press, 2017), winner of the 2015 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. His poems and translations have appeared in numerous publications, including Baffler, Boston Review, Callaloo, Literary Hub, New Republic, Poetry International, Prairie Schooner, and A Public Space. A two-time Puschart Prize nominee, he is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Cave Canem Foundation, the Frost Place, the Fulbright Program/IIE, Millay Colony for the Arts, and Stanford University, where he is a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry.

This series is supported in part by Poets & Writers through grants it has received from The James Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundations.