Brim is theblackbottom Tuesday Poet

theblackbottom.com is a blog dedicated to the critical discussion of African American politics and culture in Michigan, the Great Lakes region, and the United States as a whole.  This blog is located in West Michigan and operated out of Grand Rapids.  Click here to go to theblackbottom.

Antoinette Brim to read during the "Speaking for Others: Poetry on Social Justice" event at the Riverwood Poetry Festival

The "Speaking for Others: Poetry on Social Justice" event at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest St., Hartford from 2 to 4 p.m. "Speaking For Others" will feature four poets: Ralph Nazareth, Doug Anderson, Randall Horton and Antoinette Brim.  Click here to read the Hartford Courant article.

Attend the "Villanelles" New York Launch!

Come celebrate the release of Villanelles, an anthology published by Everyman's Library Pocket Poets. Hosted by co-editors Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali, featuring Corrina Bain, Kate Bernadette Benedict, Bruce Bennett, Charles Bernstein, Tara Betts, Antoinette Brim, Lee Ann Brown, Cheryl Clarke, LaTasha Diggs, Timothy Donnelly, John Edminster, Charles Fort, Wendy Galgan, Suzanne Gardinier, Kimiko Hahn, Matthew Hittinger, Janet Kirchheimer, Kate Light, Timothy Liu, Taylor Mali, Charles Martin, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Mendi Lewis Obadike, Kathleen Ossip, Tad Richards, Robert Schecter, Robert Schultz, Evie Shockley. Discounted books available for purchase. $8 cover charge. For more information, click here!

The WordForge Reading Series Features Antoinette Brim & Kenneth DiMaggio

The WordForge Reading Series features Two Poets from Capital Community College: Antoinette Brim and Kenneth DiMaggio on February 13 at 7 PM. The WordForge Reading Series features local poets along with an open mike. All events are scheduled on Monday nights with a 7 p.m. start time. The location is Studio @ Billings Forge, 563 Broad Street, Hartford, CT 06106. Parking is available next to Firebox restaurant or along Broad Street.

For more information about the WordForge Reading Series, click here.

"Black Enough" included in "Villanelles." Anthology now available for pre-order!

Antoinette Brim's villanelle Black Enough is included in Villanelles edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali. The anthology is now available for pre-order through Amazon.com.

Description: The first of its kind--a comprehensive collection of the best of the villanelle, a delightful poetic form whose popularity ranks only behind that of the sonnet and the haiku. With its intricate rhyme scheme and dance-like pattern of repeating lines, its marriage of recurrence and surprise, the villanelle is a form that has fascinated poets since its introduction almost two centuries ago. Many well-known poets in the past have tried their hands at the villanelle, and the form is enjoying a revival among poets writing today. The poems collected here range from the classic villanelles of the nineteenth century to such famous and memorable examples as Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night," Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," and Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song." Here too are the cutting-edge works of contemporary poets, including Sherman Alexie, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Rita Dove, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, and many others whose poems demonstrate the dazzling variety that can be found within the parameters of a single, strict form.


Click here to order.

2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival Panels

Antoinette Brim will participate in two panels during the 2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, DC. These panels are:

Continuous Fire: A Panel on the Work of Sonia Sanchez

Friday, March 23, 2012 @ 2:00 PM

Description: Although her protest efforts and activism began as an architect and central figure in the Black Arts Movement, Sonia Sanchez’s poetry is not limited to that historical context. Over the last fifty years, her work has shaped and been in dialogue with several social movements: multiracial and third wave feminism, anti-militarism, the lesbian and gay movement, and the global peace movement. As an elder, her work spans several genres: poetry, drama, children’s books, eulogies of key national and world leaders/artists, articles, and essays. This panel allows the participants to illustrate Sanchez’s influence on a wide range of contemporary artists and activist initiatives.

Panelists include: Becky Thompson, DaMaris Hill, Antoinette Brim, Lita Hooper, Danielle Hall, Patricia Biela, and Sandra Staton-Tiawo.

Even in Polite Company: Women Write Their Own Truths

Saturday, March 24, 2012 @ 9:30 AM

Description: As young girls, many women were told that some things were not to be discussed in polite company. Subsequently, women’s issues and/or truths were discussed only amongst themselves in hushed whispers in hot kitchens, over scrub boards or on playgrounds. This resulted in shame and isolation. While networks of women are affirming and necessary to the mental, emotional, physical and financial health of women as a whole, the absence of open, plain talk about women’s issues leaves a void in the social and political dialogue. Issues left out of the national dialogue are left out of the legal, legislative and budgetary dialogues, as well. Subsequently, as a demographic, women are often left unprotected. This panel discussion will focus on the necessity of writing about feminist/womanist issues in a nation leaning toward conservatism; teaching women’s issues in co-ed classrooms and the perils for women writers who unreservedly write and speak their truth in polite company.

Panelists include: Antoinette Brim, Lita Hooper, Demetrice Anntia Worley, Niki Herd and Renee Simms.

For more information about the Split This Rock Poetry Festival, visit: http://www.splitthisrock.org/festival2012/festival2012.html

Read Split This Rock's Poem of the Week

Let Daylight Come (Little Rock, circa 2008) by Antoinette Brim is the Split this Rock Poem of the Week. Read the poem on http://www.blogthisrock.blogspot.com - or listen to the poem read on the radio during Jo Reed's show On the Margin in the DC area (or on the internet on Thursday morning at 10am at: http://www.wpfw.org/index.php?db=content/WPFW_Radio&tbl=WPFW_Radio&id=1).