Herman Beavers is Professor of English and Africana Studies at the U of P, where he teaches courses in African American literature and Creative Writing.  He is the author of two scholarly monographs: Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions of Ernest J. Gaines and James A. McPherson and Geography and the Political Imaginary in the Novels of Toni Morrison and poetry chapbooks, A Neighborhood of Feeling, Obsidian Blues, and The Vernell Poems.

Julia López is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator who believes in the power of the arts and arts education to effect Social Change and Justice. Julia’s work is informed and propelled by Art Making. She has performed and exhibited her original works in diverse spaces throughout the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Central America and Spain and is presently at Mural Arts Philadelphia.

Don Riggs will have turned 67 by the time of this reading. He has taught English at Drexel University since fall 1997. He doesn’t mean to write funny poems, but they turn out that way when he reads them, so don’t feel bad about your reaction.

Aaren Yeatts Perry, Host, Open Reading Follows