FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 26, 2018
For More Information:
Glenville State College
Public Relations Department
(304) 462-4115
GLENVILLE, WV – On Thursday, October 4 Frank X Walker will visit Glenville State College as a part of the ongoing “We, too, are Appalachia” project. The series of performances and presentations, made possible by Glenville State College and the West Virginia Humanities Council, are an exploration of identity and place regarding rural West Virginia.
Walker is Kentucky’s former Poet Laureate, is a Professor in the Department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky, and is the founding editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. A Cave Canem Fellow and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of eight collections of poetry including, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry; and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award as well as two new collections, The Affrilachian Sonnets and About Flight.
He has lectured, conducted workshops, and read poetry at over 400 national conferences, arts centers, and universities across the globe. Walker was voted one of the most creative professors in the south and is the originator of the word Affrilachia. He is dedicated to deconstructing and forcing a new definition of what it means to be Appalachian. The Lannan Poetry Fellowship Award recipient has degrees from the University of Kentucky and Spalding University as well as three honorary doctorates from the University of Kentucky, Spalding University, and Transylvania University.
The event is free and open to the public and will take place beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the Heflin Administration Building Auditorium.
The “We, too, are Appalachia” project is presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily represent those of the West Virginia Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
For more information about the presentation or the “We, too, are Appalachia” project, call (304) 462-6328.
