U S Poets Laureate Charles Simic and Charles Wright, actor Mary Louise Parker, painter William H Bailey, composer and pianist John Musto, playwright John Guarre, novelist Francine Prose, family members, and others pay tribute to the late poet Mark Strand (1934-2014).

There are over 6000 languages in the whole world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world’s languages will have vanished. What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?

Los Angeles poet and writer Wanda Coleman (1946 – 2013) was the author of twenty books, most recenly 2008's Jazz and Twelve O'Clock Tales. She was considered the unofficial poet laureate of L.A., and was active across the city's artistic scenes as a poet, performer and singer, devoted to themes of racism and the female experience. Join friends, family, and poets for readings and discussion of the life and legacy of this electric and under-recognized pivotal poet of the post-war period.

Galway Kinnell (1927-2014), winner of the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and author of over 30 books, was a dear friend to Poets House. Join Jonathan Safran Foer, Edward Hirsch, Marie Howe, Yusef Komunyakaa, Mirah Kozodoy, Sharon Olds, Poets House Board Member Myra Shapiro, Gerald Stern, and C.K. Williams in celebrating the life and work of a remarkable writer and much-missed man.

Award-winning poet, author of the collection When My Brother Was an Aztec, and former professional basketball player Natalie Diaz discusses the relationship between breaking, creating, and love in the inspiration, construction and revision of poetry.

Presented as part of the Emerging Poets Fellowship public lecture series, with support from the Jerome Foundation.
.

Recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, author of the renowned 1976 work The Woman Warrior, and the daughter of illegal Chinese immigrants, Maxine Hong Kingston discusses the real-life politics of genre -- how protecting her parents and family meant designating their personal histories as fiction.

"Being a poet means being human," declared the great Iranian feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad. Three leading Middle Eastern American poet-scholars - Mohja Kahf, Dunya Mikhail, and Farzaneh Milani - explore the complicated intersection of religion, gender, and political life through readings and discussion of their work and the work of the great female poets of their home countries—Iran, Iraq, and Syria—as a way to understand the evolutions and revolutions of the last fifty years.

6:00pm - Reception and exhibition tour with Edward Sanders
7:00pm - Artist talk with Edward Sanders and guests

Award-winning Vietnamese writer, journalist and translator Nguyen Phan Que Mai, presents with Bruce Weigl, Pulitzer Prize nominee, renowned translator, author of thirteen poetry collections, and Que Ma's collaborator on her latest book, The Secret of Hoa Sen.