Close reading: 'Don't Call Us Dead' with Olivia Douglass
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maximum 15 participants; even if you have a festival pass, you should first reserve a ticket (for free, with the reservation code from the festival pass)
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Join writer and poet Olivia Douglass for a close reading of Don’t Call Us Dead, the multi-award-winning collection of poems by American author Danez Smith shortlisted for the National Book Award.
reading, a lonely occupation?
Curling up with a good book is something you generally do on your own, right? But reading doesn’t have to be an individual, let alone lonely activity. This series of ‘Close Readings’ proves the opposite.
A ‘Close Reading’ is a reading club without any preparatory reading work. During a close reading a central guest reads excerpts from a work close to their heart. Together with this passionate moderator, a small group of participants dives into the text, discussing literary forms and political issues that matter today.
Black, Queer and Poz
Award-winning poet Danez Smith is a writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. A groundbreaking force, they have been celebrated for their deft lyrics, urgent subjects and performative power. Their poems explore America, but also desire, mortality and a diagnosis of HIV positive.
A space without violence
The winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, Don’t Call Us Dead opens with a heartrending sequence that is a tour de force of the imagination: Smith conjures an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence and grief make way for the safety, love and longevity they deserved here on earth.
Alternative visions of Black and Queer experiences
Olivia Douglass is a writer, poet and curator. Her writing is concerned with articulating alternative visions of liberated Black queer experiences, away from colonial frameworks. Join her for an engaging close reading of Smith’s Don’t Call Us Dead.
Passa Porta, Rile*
picture danez smith © hieu minh nguyen
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