***This event is a virtual event. Please click here to register.***
Please submit questions for the author to be asked after the reading to jfitzhanso@chelmsfordlibrary.org
Please join us for a reading by writer, rapper and educator Nate Marshall from his recent collection, Finna (2020).
"Definition of finna, created by the author: fin·na /ˈfinə/ contraction: (1) going to; intending to [rooted in African American Vernacular English] (2) eye dialect spelling of “fixing to” (3) Black possibility; Black futurity; Blackness as tomorrow
These poems consider the brevity and disposability of Black lives and other oppressed people in our current era of emboldened white supremacy, and the use of the Black vernacular in America’s vast reserve of racial and gendered epithets. Finna explores the erasure of peoples in the American narrative; asks how gendered language can provoke violence; and finally, how the Black vernacular, expands our notions of possibility, giving us a new language of hope:
nothing about our people is romantic
& it shouldn’t be. our people deserve
poetry without meter. we deserve our
own jagged rhythm & our own uneven
walk towards sun. you make happening happen.
we happen to love. this is our greatest
action."
- From the publisher
About Nate Marshall: Nate Marshall is the author and editor of numerous works including Finna, Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the audio drama Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis Esq. He teaches creative writing and literature at Colorado College. Nate was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago.
***This event is a virtual event. Please click here to register. Please also note that this program WILL NOT be recorded. Please try to attend the live event if possible.***
This event is brought to you through a partnership between the Public Libraries of Andover, Boxford, Brockton, Chelmsford, Medway, Newton, Reading, and Westford.
