Contact:
Jonathan Potts
412-268-6094

For immediate release:
October 25, 2006

Carnegie Mellon's Center for the Arts in Society Presents Poetry Slam Champion and National Poetry Series Winner

Award-winning poet, performer and playwright Patricia Smith will appear on campus Nov. 9.

PITTSBURGH—The Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University will feature a poetry performance by award-winning poet, performer and playwright Patricia Smith at 5 p.m., Nov. 9 as part of the center's Perspectives Series. The event will take place in the Maggie Murph Café in Carnegie Mellon's Hunt Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Smith is a four-time National Poetry Slam champion, a co-author of the "Africans in America" companion book to the PBS television series and has been featured on the HBO series, "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry." Smith will perform her poetry and sign copies of her fourth book of poetry, "Teahouse of the Almighty," which was a winner of the 2005 National Poetry Series and was published this year with Coffee House Press. "Teahouse of the Almighty" will be available for sale at the event.

Smith's other books of poetry include "Close to Death," "Big Towns, Big Talk" and "Life According to Motown." Smith's poems have been published in The Paris Review, TriQuarterly, AGNI and other literary journals, and she has served as a Cave Canem faculty member. Critic E. Ethelbert Miller says of her work, "Smith writes the way Tina Turner sings."

This event is co-sponsored by Carnegie Mellon's Humanities Scholars Program, the Center for Africanamerican Urban Studies and the Economy (CAUSE), and the Creative Writing Program.

The Center for the Arts in Society brings together artists and humanities scholars to look at the ways the arts reflect and transform society through academic research, creative work and community projects. Founded in 2000, the center's activities include a visiting scholars program, publications, symposia, lectures, exhibitions and events, and curriculum development. Community activities include a youth news journal and a hip-hop music project with local students. For more information, call 412-268-5279 or visit www.hss.cmu.edu/CAS.

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