Award-Winning Poet to Read at UM as Part of President’s Lecture Series
By Abigail Lauten-Scrivner, UM News Service
MISSOULA – The University of Montana will close this academic year’s chapter of President’s Lecture Series events with “An Evening of Poetry and Healing with Kevin Young” on Tuesday, April 18.
Free and open to the public, Young will read from his collection of poems during the 7:30 p.m. event in the University Center Ballroom. A question and answer portion will follow. Sign language interpretation will be provided.
Young is the author of 13 books of poetry, two award-winning books of nonfiction and editor of several poetry collections. His latest publication is a children’s book titled “Emile and the Field.”
In addition to being an award-winning poet, author and essayist, Young holds several roles, including serving as poetry editor for The New Yorker. He also is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellow of the Society of American Historians and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Many of Young’s poems connect themes of grief and healing, family, African American history, community and place. Such publications include “Stones,” “Dear Darkness” and “Book of Hours,” as well as an anthology “The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing,” among others.
“I think a poem can express the complexity of grief,” Young said.
As the title of his event suggests, Young’s reading will seek to explore the intricacies of grief and healing through poetry. Young said he hopes attendees will feel a sense of community and connection that, in turn, will spark conversation.
Sparking conversation is the very mission of UM’s President’s Lecture Series. The annual event provides a free, accessible opportunity for all to gather, learn and discuss ideas and issues that animate communities.
“The series has been going for several decades now, it’s always been a forum for bringing some of the country’s leading intellectuals here to campus and to our broader community,” said UM Political Science Professor Robert Saldin, who also serves as coordinator of the President’s Lecture Series and director of The Mansfield Center's Ethics and Public Affairs Program. “I hope attendees come away having been intellectually stimulated and with some things to think about and grapple with.”
Another goal of the series is to engage the campus community with a diverse range of voices with different expertise, while also ensuring speakers aren’t so specialized that they’ll only appeal to a narrow slice of the community.
“We want to touch as many bases on campus as we can,” Saldin said.
This past year’s speakers included ethologist and activist Dr. Jane Goodall, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute Director Dr. Lerone A. Martin, hydrology professor Dr. Jay Famiglietti and Chinese history professor Dr. Rowena He.
Young’s event is co-sponsored by UM’s Humanities Institute through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and UM’s creative writing program. The reading is the culmination of over 30 community events in the Humanities Institute’s series “Re-Imagining Death: Conversations About Dying, Loss and Grief.” The series culminates in April with several opportunities to gather and discuss death, dying and grief in a supportive environment.
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Contact: Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.