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Lucille Clifton
As part of the The President and Provost's 2008-09 Diversity Lecture and Cultural Arts Series, acclaimed African American poet Lucille Clifton read from her extensive body of work at the Wexner Center on April 21. As OSU Creative Writing Poetry Professor Kathy Fagan explained in her introduction, during the past 40 years Clifton has published countless books of poetry, a memoir, fiction, and several children's books. In addition to numerous literary prizes-including the National Book Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, as well as being nominated twice for the Pulitzer prize-and her ten-year term as poet laureate of the state of Maryland, Clifton is one of the few accomplished writers who has also been awarded an Emmy award, which she received for her contribution to Marlo Thomas's classic children's book Free to Be You and Me. Fagan also characterized Clifton's work as "clean, spare, and often humorous," frequently dealing with issues of voice, race, gender, oppression, the grieving and the aggrieved, as well as drawing extensively in both its form and content on African American culture.
During the reading, Clifton captured the audience's attention with evocative reading from several of her published collections interspersed with anecdotes and her thoughts about the role poets play in society. She explained that she never plans out her readings, choosing which poems to read and which stories to tell by feeling out the audience, beginning with a series of poems written from the perspective of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and the smiling Cream of Wheat brand man which addressed the dislocation these cultural icons feel in always living in white folks homes rather than their own.
During the reading, Clifton captured the audience's attention with evocative reading from several of her published collections interspersed with anecdotes and her thoughts about the role poets play in society. She explained that she never plans out her readings, choosing which poems to read and which stories to tell by feeling out the audience, beginning with a series of poems written from the perspective of Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and the smiling Cream of Wheat brand man which addressed the dislocation these cultural icons feel in always living in white folks homes rather than their own.
