CITY LIGHTS LIVE! Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry

Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani with Matthew Shenoda

Readings and discussion centered upon the book

Toward a Living Archive of African Poetry
Edited by: Kwame Dawes, Chris Abani and Siwar Masannat
Published by Akashic Books

Purchase the book at this link:
https://citylights.com/poetry-critici...

TOWARD A LIVING ARCHIVE OF AFRICAN POETRY collects the introductory essays of the New-Generation African Poetry Chapbook Box Sets written by editors Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. Celebrating ten years of their dedication to publishing chapbooks by emerging poets, this volume offers a glimpse into Abani and Dawes’s editorial labor and conceptualization of an inclusive African poetic. Here is African poetry as capacious transnational phenomenon; as polyvocal, linguistically layered journey; as intergenerational conversation; as grappling with traditions and futures in the present tense of modernity; and much more.

Chris Abani’s prose includes The Secret History of Las Vegas, Song for Night, The Virgin of Flames, Becoming Abigail, GraceLand, and Masters of the Board. His poetry collections include Smoking the Bible, Sanctificum, There Are No Names for Red, Feed Me the Sun, Hands Washing Water, Dog Woman, Daphne’s Lot, and Kalakuta Republic. He holds a BA and MA in English, an MA in gender and culture, and a PhD in literature and creative writing. Abani is the recipient of a PEN America Freedom to Write Award, a Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/ Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond Margins Award, a PEN/Hemingway Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. He won the prestigious 2024 UNT Rilke Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Born in Nigeria, he is currently on the board of trustees, a professor of English, and director of African Studies at Northwestern University.

Kwame Dawes is the author of numerous books of poetry and other works of fiction, criticism, and essays. His most recent poetry collection, Sturge Town, was published by Peepal Tree Press in the UK and W. W. Norton in the US. Dawes is a professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. He also teaches in the Pacific MFA Program and is the series editor of the African Poetry Book Series, director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He is a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Dawes is the winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2022 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In 2022, Kwame Dawes was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander Class by the Government of Jamaica, and in 2024, he was appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica.

Matthew Shenoda is a writer, professor, and author and editor of several books. His poems and essays have appeared in a variety of newspapers, journals, radio programs and anthologies. His latest book is The Way of the Earth (Northwestern University Press, 2022). Currently he is Professor and Chair of the Department of Literary Arts and affiliated faculty in Africana Studies at Brown University. Additionally, Shenoda is currently faculty for Cave Canem and a founding editor of the African Poetry Book Fund and both the African Poetry book series and On African Poetry book series.

This event was originally broadcast on Tuesday, August 12, 2025.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation