Convocation Program

Speaker: Patricia Smith, poet, spoken-word performer, playwright, author, writing teacher and former journalist
Friday, January 24, 2025, 12:30 p.m.

Lawrence Memorial Chapel

Convocation Program

Coming soon.

Speaker Biography

Patricia Smith, author bio picPatricia Smith is the award-winning author of eight critically acclaimed books of poetry, including Unshuttered (Triquarterly Books, 2023); Incendiary Art (Triquarterly Books, 2017), winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (Coffee House Press, 2012), winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press, 2008), a National Book Award finalist; and Gotta Go, Gotta Flow (CityFiles Press, 2015), a collaboration with award-winning Chicago photographer Michael Abramson. Her other books include the poetry volumes Teahouse of the Almighty (Coffee House Press, 2006), Big Towns Big Talk (Zoland Books, 2002), Close to Death (Zoland Books, 1998), and Life According to Motown (Tia Chucha, 1991); the children's book Janna and the Kings (Lee & Low, 2013); and the history Africans in America (Mariner, 1999), a companion book to the award-winning PBS series. Her work has appeared in PoetryThe Paris ReviewThe BafflerThe Washington PostThe New York Times, and Tin House as well as Best American PoetryBest American Essays, and Best American Mystery Stories. She co-edited The Golden Shovel Anthology—New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks (University of Arkansas Press, 2017), and edited the crime fiction anthology Staten Island Noir (Akashic Books, 2012).

Smith is a Guggenheim fellow, a Civitellian, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt Prize, a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, a former fellow at both Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. She is a professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, a former Distinguished Professor for the City University of New York, an Academy of American Poets Chancellor, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

 

Notices

  • As a courtesy to the artists and to those in attendance, please be aware that sounds such as whispering and the rustling of programs and cellophane wrappers are magnified in the hall.

  • Please silence all cell phones and other electronic devices during convocations.

  • Convocations may not be recorded, photographed or broadcast without the written consent of the speaker and Lawrence University.

  • Bag lunches for students, faculty & staff will be available to go in the Music-Drama Center lobby following the Convocation.

  • Please refrain from talking during all musical selections.
  • An American Sign Language interpreter will be available and located on the stage.
    ASL Interpretation Services offered

    Next Convocation

    Honors Convocation: Allison M. M. Fleshman, associate professor of Chemistry
    “The Science of Paint Drying: It’s more fascinating than it sounds”
    Friday, May 30, 2025, 12:30 p.m.