Media Contacts:
Camille Rankine, Program/Communications Coordinator
Cave Canem Foundation: 718.858.0000; camillerankine@ccpoets.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CAVE CANEM PRESENTS POETRY & MUSIC AT PRATT INSTITUTE
Performances by Cecil Taylor, Randy Weston, Geri Allen, Margo Jefferson & More
BROOKLYN, NY (October 3, 2010) ? Cave Canem Foundation, North America?s premier ?home for black poetry,? will celebrate a year in Brooklyn with an evening of exceptional music and poetry on October 27, 2010 at Pratt Institute?s Brooklyn, NY campus. The benefit program will be held 8 ? 10 pm at Memorial Hall, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Musical greats Geri Allen, Elliott Sharp, Cecil Taylor and Randy Weston, along with renowned artists Eisa Davis, Margo Jefferson, Jennifer Miller, the Tracie Morris Band and Cecilia Smith will headline; and several ?surprise? guest performers will round out the evening. A complementary online auction, featuring fine dining, original art and award-winning literary services, offers opportunities to support Cave Canem?s mission to cultivate new voices in African American poetry. To participate in the auction and purchase tickets, beginning at $40 for general seating, go to www.cavecanempoets.org/benefit.
?With this benefit event, we?re celebrating our first year in Brooklyn, where we?ve been making new friends for Cave Canem and poetry. Though Cave Canem has been building a ?home? for black poetry since 1996, establishing our own space in DUMBO for readings and workshops is exciting progress. We hope the community will come out to the benefit, meet members of our poetry family, and enjoy some great performances,? said Toi Derricotte, Cave Canem co-founder.
Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under-representation of African Americans in writing workshops and MFA programs, Cave Canem has been advancing the artistic and professional growth of African American poets in New York City and nationally for 14 years. The organization has grown to become an influential movement with a high-achieving fellowship of over 300 and a renowned faculty that includes Inaugural Poet Elizabeth Alexander and Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa. In October 2009, the organization moved its headquarters from Manhattan to DUMBO and expanded its Brooklyn-based programs.
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Comment(s)
Interested in event on Oct. 27.