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Slam poet coming to Lake Tahoe college

Tahoe Daily Tribune

Slam poet Patricia Smith will speak at Lake Tahoe Community College on Thursday, April 16.

The free Duke Theater performance starts at 7 p.m.

Lauded by critics as “a testament to the power of words to change lives,” Smith is the author of five acclaimed poetry volumes ” “Blood Dazzler,” which chronicles the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina; “Teahouse of the Almighty” (a National Poetry Series selection and winner of the first-ever Hurston/Wright Award in poetry); “Close to Death;” “Life According to Motown;” and “Big Towns, Big Talk.”



A four-time individual champion on the National Poetry Slam and the most successful slammer in the competition’s history, Smith has also been a featured poet on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and has performed three one-woman plays, one produced by Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott. She collaborates often with musicians, dancers and filmmakers.

Among her many honors are a Pushcart Prize and the Carl Sandburg Award. Her work has been published in Poetry, The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, and other literary journals. Smith has performed around the world in venues that include Carnegie Hall, the Poets Stage in Stockholm and Rotterdam’s Poetry International Festival.



In addition to her poetic works, Smith is also the author of “Africans in America,” a companion volume to the groundbreaking PBS documentary. Publishers Weekly called the book “a monumental research effort wed with fine writing … ultimately shaped by Smith’s beautiful narrative.”

She has served as a Cave Canem faculty member, a Bruce McEver visiting chair in writing at Georgia Tech University, and writer-in-residence at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Smith was inducted into the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in 2006.

Smith’s appearance is part of the LTCC Diversity Committee in conjunction with the Writers’ Series.


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