The poets, Calvin Hernton, Harryette Mullen, Ishmael Reed and Nathaniel Mackey, will participate in various activities, including poetry readings, symposia and discussion and presentation forums. Students in Hampton University s Creative Writing course will also conduct workshops with a group of students from Hampton s Bethel High School. The kick-off symposium will be held in the McGrew Conference Center at 7 p.m. The Series, funded by a grant from the Lannan Foundation and First Christian Church in Norfolk, will offer the Hampton Roads community an opportunity to experience diverse types of poetry and writing. The program will promote creative writing at Hampton University by giving students, and especially student writers, the opportunity for close extended contact with the artists. Activities will be held on the Hampton University campus and at the First Christian Church, which is located at 1600 Colonial Avenue in the Ghent section of Norfolk.
All events are free and open to the public.
The poets are all charismatic and articulate. They are literary critics and professors, and all are very interested in presenting their works to students and the community. Hernton, the first poet featured, will be on campus from Nov. 12 -14. He is a professor and chairman of the African-American Studies Department at Oberlin College. Mullen, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, will be on campus from Feb. 25 - 27, 1999.