*Picnic* In Conversation: Poets, Essayists, & Cultural Critics Scott Woods and Hanif Abdurraqib
BLACK NIGHT IS FALLING
Scott Woods' third book of poetry wrestles with ecstatic notions of blackness, the beauty and grief to be found in every 'hood carryout, the colonization of pumpkin spice, and backstage tales of the vaunted and mythical Cookout. At turns funny, fearlessly irreverent and dark, Woods composes a love letter to the existential and emotional blues, gathering up all of the love and woe that can be held in the face of a world seemingly resigned to its own blues.
ABOUT SCOTT WOODS
Scott Woods is the author of Black Night Is Falling, We Over Here Now, Urban Contemporary History Month, and Prince and Little Weird Black Boy Gods. Scott has published and edited work in a variety of publications and has been featured multiple times in national press, including several appearances on National Public Radio. Scott is the Founder/Executive Director of Streetlight Guild, which focuses on Columbus art and underrepresented voices. Scott is the former President of Poetry Slam Inc. and co-founder of Writers’ Block Poetry Night, an open mic series in Columbus, Ohio. In 2006, he became the first poet to ever complete a 24-hour solo poetry reading, a feat he bested with six more annual 24-hour readings without repeating a single poem. In October 2020, Scott won an Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Award for contributions to A House That Cannot Fall.
ABOUT HANIF ABDURRAQIB
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant. His poetry and essays have been published in Muzzle, Vinyl, PEN American, The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Hanif has two award-winning poetry collections, The Crown Ain't Worth Much and A Fortune for Your Disaster. His first collection of essays, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune. He released Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest in 2019, which became a New York Times bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. In 2021, Hanif released the book A Little Devil In America, which won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2024, Hanif released There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and was named a best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, The New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Book Riot.
You will have the opportunity to ask the speakers questions after the event, purchase books, and get your books signed.
