Acclaimed Author Claudia Rankine Speaks (Virtually) for CWRU Scholarship Fund

Fri 2/26 @ 3:13-4:30PM

Writer Claudia Rankine has been producing poems, essays and plays for decades (she’s 58). But it was her 2014 book Citizen: An American Lyric that brought her to widespread attention, as acclaim and attention directed to the book have continued to grow, turning it into a classic and making it the topic of many public forums and reading projects.

Her hybrid format has been described alternatively as poetry or essays, but “lyric essays” seems most accurate. In poetic prose, she describes the impact of microaggressions (a key theme), racist language, the treatment of tennis star Serena Williams and specific racial incidents such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and “stop and frisk” policies.

Last year she released Just Us: An American Conversation, a compendium of different media — photos, tweets, historical documents, excerpts from textbooks, poetry, her own thoughts and experiences — to create a multi-dimensional portrait of how racism operates in America and suggest how it can be addressed.

Rankine is this year’s speaker at Case Western Reserve University’s fundraiser for its Frederica Ward Scholarship Fund, awarded annually to a student interested in African and African-American studies and culture. While attendance at Rankine’s virtual lecture is free, donations to the scholarship fund will be encouraged. Go here to register and get the Zoom link.

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