Poet Nikky Finney will be the keynote speaker at Jackson State University’s 9th Annual Creative Arts Festival.
To be held on the JSU campus April 10-11, the Festival this year is titled “Margaret Walker — This Is My Century” to mark the centennial of the life of the late author and JSU professor Margaret Walker.
“She is a perfect fit for the festival,” said Dr. Robert Luckett, director of JSU’s Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, coordinating the Festival. This is “because she represents the generation of black artists — and artists in general — who were inspired by Margaret which is evident in the foreword she wrote for This is My Century which came out last year.”
A South Carolina native, Finney was a child of activists, coming of age during the civil rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history.
Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World Is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985).
Holding the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Southern Letters and Literature at the University of South Carolina, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets.
Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.
Festival activities will be held at the Student Center and at Ayer Hall, where the Walker Center is located, as well as outside Ayer Hall.
“We’ll be installing the bench,” then, too, Luckett said, referring to a piece from The Toni Morrison Society’s Bench by the Road Project, which also fits in with the Walker Centennial theme of literature, history and art.
The Bench is a black, weather-resistant steel memorial bench that is suitable for a moment of reflection. It will have a bronze 6×9 inch naming plate mounted on it.
The name “Bench by the Road” is taken from Morrison’s remarks in a 1989 interview with World magazine where she spoke of the absences of historical markers that help remember the lives of Africans who were enslaved.
The Festival will feature student performances, panel presentations, and art displays, as well as proposals from high school, undergraduate, and graduate students for papers, presentations, and panels. Deadlines for submissions is March 13.
Additionally, the best essay by a JSU student on the “black experience in the American South” will receive the $1,000 Margaret Walker Alexander Annual Award. JSU students who would like to be considered for this award must submit their 8- to 10-page essays by Friday, April 3.
For more information, contact the Center (mwa@jsums.edu or 601-979-2055) or the conference coordinators, Dr. Helen Crump (helen.j.crump@jsums.edu) and Luckett (robert.luckett@jsums.edu).