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Danez Smith: Don't Call Us Dead

Chicago Humanities
137K subscribers
20K views 7 years ago
Award-winning poet Danez Smith is celebrated for deft lines, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don’t Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police—suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten, replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith writes about desire, mortality—the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood—and an HIV-positive diagnosis. Smith confronts, praises, and rebukes America, where every day is too often a funeral and too rarely a miracle. University of Chicago sociologist, poet, artist, and educator Eve L. Ewing joins Danez in conversation. This program is presented in partnership with Gallery Guichard and the Poetry Foundation. This program was recorded on November 3, 2017 as part of Fallfest/17: Belief. Learn more here: https://chicagohumanities.org/belief See upcoming CHF events: http://chicagohumanities.org Help us sub …...more
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Danez Smith: Don't Call Us Dead
493Likes
20,192Views
2017Nov 15
Award-winning poet Danez Smith is celebrated for deft lines, urgent subjects, and performative power. Don’t Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police—suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten, replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved here on earth. Smith writes about desire, mortality—the dangers experienced in skin and body and blood—and an HIV-positive diagnosis. Smith confronts, praises, and rebukes America, where every day is too often a funeral and too rarely a miracle. University of Chicago sociologist, poet, artist, and educator Eve L. Ewing joins Danez in conversation. This program is presented in partnership with Gallery Guichard and the Poetry Foundation. This program was recorded on November 3, 2017 as part of Fallfest/17: Belief. Learn more here: https://chicagohumanities.org/belief See upcoming CHF events: http://chicagohumanities.org Help us subtitle and translate our videos: http://chf.to/SubtitleCHF Subscribe for more thought-provoking videos: http://chf.to/SubscribeCHF Support CHF with a donation: http://chf.to/Support-CHF Follow CHF on Twitter:   / chi_humanities   Like CHF on Facebook:   / chicagohumanities   Subscribe to the CHF podcast on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ch... Help us caption & translate this video! https://amara.org/v/cbrY/

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Chicago Humanities

137K subscribers