Renowned British poet and playwright Rommi Smith performs at CCNY.
City College of New York’s MFA in Creative Writing Program, whose mentors have ranged from literary great Donald Barthelme to distinguished poet Marilyn Hacker, welcomes British playwright, poet and the U.K. Parliament’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence Rommi Smith for a talk and reading. Her talk, 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, in the Rifkind Room (NAC 6/316) is entitled “Our Voices, Ourselves.” On Wednesday, Sept. 13, Smith will give a reading and performance from 5 p.m. in Shepard Hall room 250. Both events are free and open to the public.
In addition to her parliamentary residence, Smith has held other notable residencies. They include Inaugural Poet-in-Residence at Keats House and British Council Poet-in-Residence at California State University in Los Angeles.
Smith featured in Melvyn Bragg’s landmark BBC Radio 4 series, “The Matter of the North.” She was interviewed by Lord Melvyn Bragg about the life and travels of Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist, orator and writer.
Her honors include a Hedgebrook Fellowship in the United States; the Elizabeth George Award for women funded by the crime writer, Elizabeth George, and a John Barnard Scholarship at the University of Leeds.
Rommi is a librettist for a feminist reworking of Schubert’s “Die Schone Mullerin,” a collaboration with celebrated British Baritone Roderick Williams OBE, and composer Emily Levy. The piece premieres in Stratford-Upon-Avon, William Shakespeare’s birthplace in England, on September 27.
Smith’s MFA talk and reading/performances are sponsored by CCNY’s Rifkind Center for the Humanities and Arts and the Kenneth Kowald Fund for Advancing American Literature. For more information on the events, please email mvalladares@ccny.cuny.edu .
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