Press contact: Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189
Public contact: (202) 707-5221

February 25, 2002

Creativity and Spirituality of African American Women to Be Featured at Library of Congress Program on Tuesday, March 19

Akasha Gloria Hull, author of Soul Talk: The New Spirituality of African American Women (Inner Traditions, 2002), will discuss her book at the Library of Congress at 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 19, in the Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. She will be joined by poets Lucille Clifton and Dolores Kendrick for further discussion about the lives and work of various African American women writers.

Part of the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" author series, the program is cosponsored by the Library's Poetry and Literature Center. It is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

In Soul Talk, through conversations with some of today's most creative women, Akasha Gloria Hull explores a new spiritual consciousness among African American women that has fostered both personal healing and artistic brilliance. The book features conversations with Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara, Lucille Clifton, Dolores Kendrick, Sonia Sanchez, Michele Gibbs, Geraldine McIntosh, Masani Alexis DeVeaux, and Namonyah Soipan. Soul Talk has been widely praised. Author Toni Morrison called it "a worthy tribute to Toni Cade Bambara and to the lives and work of African American writers." Washington, D.C., poet and writer E. Ethelbert Miller said: "This book talks to me. Soul to soul."

Akasha Gloria Hull is a writer, professor of literature and women's studies, lecturer, and consultant. Her previous books include Healing Heart: Poems, 1973-1988 (Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1989); editor, The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (Oxford University Press, 1988); Color, Sex and Poetry: Three Women of the Harlem Renaissance (Indiana University Press, 1987); editor, Give Us Each Day: A Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (W.W. Norton, 1984); and co-editor, All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies (Feminist Press, 1982). She lives in northern California.

Lucille Clifton won the 2000 National Book Award for Poetry for her most recent book, Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000 (BOA Editions, 2000). She has published 10 collections of poetry and 19 children's books. She and Dolores Kendrick participated in the 2001 National Book Festival at the Library of Congress.

Dolores Kendrick, the current poet laureate of the District of Columbia, has won many awards and has been inducted into the International Hall of Literary Fame for writers of African American descent, an honor sponsored by the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing. Her books include Why the Woman Is Singing on the Corner: A Verse Narrative (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2001); The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women (Morrow, 1989); and Now Is the Thing to Praise: Poems (Lotus Press, 1984).

The Library's Poetry and Literature Center is the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. In addition to supporting the Poet Laureate's activities and interests, the center sponsors an annual series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia, occasional dramatic performances, and other literary events.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries. For information about its program, publications, and the activities of its affiliated centers in 44 states and the District of Columbia, visit its Web site at www.loc.gov/cfbook.

Interpreting services (American Sign Language, Contact Signing, Oral and/or Tactile) will be provided if requested five business days in advance of the event. Call (202) 707-6362 TTY and voice to make a specific request. For other ADA accommodations contact the Disability Employment Office at (202) 707-7544, voice, or ADA@loc.gov.

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PR 02-020
02/25/02
ISSN 0731-3527

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