Poet Claudia Rankine: Reading and Discussion

Claudia Rankine discussion, reading & book signing. Claudia will be discussing, and reading her book Citizen: an American lyric as part of the EFL Lingua Franca Speakers series. Her books are available for purchase at the Bronco bookstore.

Where: BSC Ursa Minor

When: April 13th, 5pm-6pm (reading and discussion. Book signing will follow)

Co-sponsors:  the event will not have been possible without the generous collaboration of our co-sponsors:

• Ethnic and Women's Studies (EWS)
• Ahimsa Center
• African American Student Center (AASC)

Claudia Rankine is a renowned poet, essayist, and playwright.  Her book Citizen: An American Lyric was one of the five finalists for the National Book Award in 2014.  Citizen has been described by The New Yorker as a "book that explores the kinds of injustice that thrive when the illusion of justice is perfected", and by the LA Review of Books as an "exploration of racial subjectivity [that] traverses the philosophical (...) as it mines the terrain of national news and contemporary events". Ultimately the New York Times has consider it "timely", "in light of the national demonstrations over the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases".

You can read the poem "you are in the dark in the car"
from Citizen: “You are in the dark, in the car...” by Claudia Rankine : Poetry Magazine

"You are in the dark, in the car"  is a poignant cry that reveals the unstable foundations of civility unveiling the violence underneath nowadays American civilization.