Blood Dazzler at the Octoroon Balls
with Patricia Smith and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
Saturday, October 6th at 4:00PM
Bethany Baptist Church
275 West Market Street
Newark, NJ 07103
Poet Patricia Smith will read selections from Blood Dazzler, an electrifying sequence of poems chronicling the physical and emotional toll of Hurricane Katrina, a catastrophic event with lasting spiritual impact.
Her reading – in which she channels the voices of victims and survivors, and imagines the voice of Katrina herself – will be accompanied by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra String Quartet playing selections from Wynton Marsalis’s first string quartet, At the Octoroon Balls, a jazz-inspired musical history of New Orleans.
During her reading, New Jersey-based Patricia Smith, a four-time National Poetry Slam champion, will discuss her poems, answer audience questions, and sign books. In addition to her five books of poetry, Ms. Smith has been published extensively in anthologies and literary magazines and is the author of a book of history, Africans in America, and a children’s book, Janna and the Kings. The event is free; offerings that evening will support Bethany Baptist Church’s literacy program.
The performance will be followed by Jazz Vespers, featuring the Courtney Bryan Band. We hope you can join us for both of these events for a powerful evening of poetry and music.
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This presentation of Blood Dazzler at the Octoroon Balls is a preview of the World Premiere performance which will take place on Sunday, October 14 at 12:00 noon in the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Prudential Hall as part of the 2012 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, October 11-14, 2012, at NJPAC and other venues in Newark’s Downtown Arts District.
Information and tickets: DodgePoetry.org or 1-800-GO-NJPAC.
Newark residents receive 50% off the price of regular tickets!