Guides: Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP) & the ULS Collection: Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy

Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy - Fall 2021

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Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy was a week-long collection of events that engaged in creative practice toward themes related to, interrogating, and working from intimacy in this contemporary moment. The series ran from October 4th, 2021 through October 8th, 2021.

Monday, October 4th @ 6 PM:

Visual artist Phoebe Boswell, poet Cyrus Cassells, & pleasure activist Ama Josephine B. Johnstone in Creative Conversation
Virtual event

Wednesday, October 6th @ 6PM:

Vocalist and performance artist Helga Davis & filmmaker Naima Ramos-Chapman in Creative Conversation. Audience Q&A to Follow.
Location: In-Person at the Tent at Schenley Plaza (Capacity is limited. Masks required.)

Thursday, October 7th @ 2 PM:

An afternoon salon with essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon & artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, featuring a reading, discussion, and audience Q&A.
Virtual Event

Thursday, October 7th @ 6 PM:

An evening with writer and poet Elizabeth Acevedo. Novelist Angie Cruz will moderate a conversation and audience Q&A. (in partnership with Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy)
Location: In-Person at the Tent at Schenley Plaza (Capacity is limited. Masks required.)
Included an outdoor book signing.

Friday, October 8th

Thinking in Creative Practice: A Day of Creativity and Reflection
Prompts from invited guests will be posted on the CAAPP website: https://caapp.pitt.edu

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Wit(h)ness: Phoebe Boswell, Cyrus Cassells, & Ama Josephine B. Johnston in Creative Conversation
October 4, 2021 - 6:00pm

Digital Reading & Conversation | Monday, October 4th, 2021 at 6 PM EST

Visual artist Phoebe Boswell, poet Cyrus Cassells, & pleasure activist Ama Josephine B. Johnstone in Creative Conversation. Audience Q&A to follow.

Free Virtual Event

(Event 1 in Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy)

More Than Watchmen at Daybreak by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 M67 2020
ISBN: 9781732660076
Publication Date: 2020
A stunningly beautiful and moving group of twelve related poems written while the author was resident for three months without internet or phone in a Benedictine monastery near Georgia O'Keefe's ranch. Item number: 31735071776359
Still Life with Children by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PC3942.26.A7 A2 2019
ISBN: 9781622885435
Publication Date: 2019
Cyrus Cassells' vibrant translations grow on the page as though the essence of Francesc Parcerisas' work has also moved forward in a Janus-like fashion. These translations are not simply the same poems in a different language; Cassells has crafted new poetry. The gentle and delicate rhythms of Parcerisas have been contracted into shorter lines that explore sharper cadences whilst Cassells carefully maintains a sensitive continuity in the opening feet. Item number: 31735071776383
The Gospel According to Wild Indigo by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 A6 2018
ISBN: 9780809336609
Publication Date: 2018
Consisting of two dynamic song cycles, Cyrus Cassells's sixth poetry volume, The Gospel according to Wild Indigo, keeps the reader on edge with a timeless and beguiling feast of language that fuses together history, memory, and family. The first cycle, rooted in the culture of the Gullah people of Charleston and the Sea Islands, celebrates the resilience of the rice- and indigo-working slaves and their descendants who have forged a unique Africa-inspired language and culture. Set against a Mediterranean backdrop, the second cycle explores themes of pilgrimage, love, and loss, concluding with a pair of elegies to the poet's mother and the many men lost in the juggernaut of the AIDS crisis. Item number: 31735071779007
The Crossed-Out Swastika by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 C76 2012
ISBN: 9781556593796
Publication Date: 2012
Cyrus Cassells' fifth book commemorates the blazing integrity of young people caught in the vise of World War II. In its journey through the "anti-miracle" of Europe's embattled past,The Crossed-Out Swastika follows the lives of historical and semi-fictional characters to unearth and amplify moments of almost impossible music, bravery, beauty, and redemption, illuminating the human spirit against unspeakable tyranny. Item number: 31735064840519
More Than Peace and Cypresses by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 M67 2004
ISBN: 1556592140
Publication Date: 2004
Cyrus Cassells' fourth volume of poetry is an elegiac "book of heroes," a lyric homage to the "artistic fathers" who taught him "the truth-or-bust beauty of passion transformed / into sheer compassion." In the wake of his father's death, Cassells returned to Italy, France and Spain, countries that nurtured him as a young writer, to investigate the sources of his inspiration.
Beautiful Signor by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 B4 1997
ISBN: 1556591241
Publication Date: 1997
A trenchant search for beauty amidst a world ravaged by cruelty. Item number: 31735071777100
Soul Make a Path Through Shouting by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A7955 S65 1994
ISBN: 1556590660
Publication Date: 1994
Early collection of poetry. Item number: 31735071778058
Mud Actor by Cyrus Cassells
Call Number: PS3553.A8786 M8 2000
ISBN: 0887483259
Publication Date: 2000
A reissuing of The Mud Actor, the debut collection of poetry by Cyrus Cassells. Item number: 31735071794972

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Wit(h)ness: Salon with Kiese Laymon and Wura-Natasha Ogunji
October 7, 2021 - 2:00pm

Digital Reading & Conversation | Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 2PM EST

An afternoon salon with essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon & artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, featuring a reading, discussion, and audience Q&A.

Free Virtual Event

(Event 3 in Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy)

Long Division by Kiese Laymon
Call Number: PS3612.A959 L66 2021
ISBN: 9781982177362
Publication Date: 2021
From Kiese Laymon, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Heavy, comes a "funny, astute, searching" (The Wall Street Journal) debut novel about Black teenagers that is a satirical exploration of celebrity, authorship, violence, religion, and coming of age in post-Katrina Mississippi. Written in a voice that's alternately humorous, lacerating, and wise, Long Division features two interwoven stories, the first from 2013 and the second from 1985. Item number: 31735071776193
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
Call Number: PS3612.A959 Z46 2013
ISBN: 9781982170820
Publication Date: 2020 reprint; 2013 original
A revised collection with thirteen essays, including six new to this edition and seven from the original edition, by the "star in the American literary firmament, with a voice that is courageous, honest, loving, and singularly beautiful" (NPR). This new edition of award-winning author Kiese Laymon's first work of nonfiction looks inward, drawing heavily on the author and his family's experiences, while simultaneously examining the world--Mississippi, the South, the United States--that has shaped their lives. Item number: 31735064915931
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
Call Number: E185.97.L394 A3 2018
ISBN: 9781501125652
Publication Date: 2018
In this powerful and provocative memoir, genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon explores what the weight of a lifetime of secrets, lies, and deception does to a black body, a black family, and a nation teetering on the brink of moral collapse. In his essays, personal stories combine with piercing intellect to reflect both on the state of American society and on his experiences with abuse, which conjure conflicted feelings of shame, joy, confusion and humiliation. Laymon invites us to consider the consequences of growing up in a nation wholly obsessed with progress yet wholly disinterested in the messy work of reckoning with where we've been. Item number: 31735072342904

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Wit(h)ness: An Evening with Elizabeth Acevedo
October 7, 2021 - 6:30pm

In-Person Reading & Conversation | Thursday, October 7th, 2021 at 6:30PM EST

An evening with writer and poet Elizabeth Acevedo. Novelist Angie Cruz will moderate a conversation and audience Q&A. (In partnership with Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy)

Location: In-Person at the Tent at Schenley Plaza (Capacity is limited. Masks required.)

(Event 4 in Wit(h)ness: A CAAPP Black Study on Intimacy)

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Call Number: PZ7.5.A35 Cl 2020
ISBN: 9780062882769
Publication Date: 2020
In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives. Item number: 31735071776250
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
Call Number: PZ7.1.A2135 W58 2019
ISBN: 9780062662835
Publication Date: 2019
A novel in prose about a girl with talent, pride, and a drive to feed the soul that keeps her fire burning bright. Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions--doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Item number: 31735071776367
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Call Number: PS3601.C475 P64 2020
ISBN: 9780062662811
Publication Date: 2020
Novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook. Item number: 31735071776151