BOOKISH: Celebs on bikes, Easter tales and a literary safari

Each week, Nina Willbach rounds up upcoming readings and literary events in BOOKISH. This week: celebs on bikes, Easter tales and a literary safari.

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BOOKISH: Celebs on bikes, Easter tales and a literary safari

POSTED: Thursday, April 5, 2012, 4:00 PM

Each week, Nina Willbach puts together a rundown of book-centric events. This week: celebs on bikes, Easter tales and a literary safari!

Thursday, April 5

Words in Exile

As a literary genre, African-American poetry has often dealt with the need to carve out an identity, a process that frequently involves looking to an African past — both real and symbolic — to make sense of the present. Keorapetse Kgositsile has a unique vantage point on this: Born in Johannesburg in 1938, Kgositsile came to the U.S. to evade the oppressive South African apartheid system and pursue his work as a poet and political activist. Even before his exile, he was exposed to African-American culture and sought it out, reading works by poets like Langston Hughes and listening to jazz greats like John Coltrane and Nina Simone, and began writing himself. His poems read as a cry against oppression, mixing memory with powerful emotion. With his African roots and American education, he's credited with bridging the gap between these two literary cultures, and as an important figure in the Pan-Africanism movement. Less than 20 years after the fall of apartheid, Kgositsile's voice is stronger than ever, reminding never to underestimate the power of poetry in the ongoing battle against oppression.

6 p.m., free, Kelly Writers House, 3805 Locust Walk, writing.upenn.edu/wh.

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