Kevin Simmonds Website Banner(2).png

Performance: Kevin Simmonds

with Valetta Brinson, James Cagney and devorah major
星期三, 11/10/2021
7:00 - 8:00

Kevin Simmonds reads from new his book, The Monster I Am Today: Leontyne Price and a Life in Verse.  Joining the reading and celebration are poets James Cagney and devorah major, and soprano Valetta Brinson. 

Structured operatically into overture, acts, and postlude, The Monster I Am Today guides the reader through associative shifts from arias like “weather events” and Price’s forty-two-minute final ovation to memories of Simmonds’s coming of age in New Orleans. As he melds lyric forms with the biography of one of classical music’s greatest virtuosos, Simmonds composes a duet that spotlights Price’s profound influence on him as a person and an artist: “That’s how I hear: Her.” 

The Monster I Am Today: Leontyne Price and a Life in Verse may well prove to be the ultimate hybrid: a monster of a book, to be read and reread, not in parts but whole, attending and attentive to the body of its ‘dark molasses sound.” —Brenda Marie Osbey, World Literature Today


Bios 

Kevin Simmonds is a musician and writer originally from New Orleans. He is the author of The Monster I am Today: Leontyne Price and a Life in Verse (Northwestern University Press), two poetry collections, Mad for Meat and Bend to It (both from Salmon Poetry), and the editor of Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion, and Spirituality (Sibling Rivalry Press) and Ota Benga under My Mother’s Roof (University of South Carolina Press). He lives in San Francisco. 

Soprano Valetta Brinson has performed in the UK, Japan and throughout the US, specializing in the music of Bach, Mozart and Strauss, as well as the songs of African American composers such as Earnestine Rodgers Robinson. Among others, she has performed with Nashville Opera Mississippi Opera and Opera Memphis in such productions as Der Rosenkavelier, Madama Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi, Die Zauberflöte and Falstaff. And she created the role of Coretta Scott King in the opera, The Promise, by John Baur. She is Associate Professor of Music at Southwest Tennessee Community College. 

James Cagney is a poet from Oakland. His first book, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory, won the PEN Oakland 2019 Josephine Miles award. His second collection, Martian:The Saint of Loneliness is due from Nomadic Press this September. 

devorah major, born and raised in California, served as San Francisco’s Third Poet Laureate (2002-2006). She has just returned from Italy where her sixth book of poetry with open arms was released in a bilingual edition. A Willow Press Editors Choice her seventh book of poetry Califia’s Daughter was published by Willow Press in 2020. 

Connect 

Kevin Simmonds - Website | Kevin Simmonds - Instagram 

Valetta Brinson - Instagram 

James Cagney - Website 

devorah major - Website  


與您最喜愛的作家進行互動,發掘您下一本讀物。

「不止一月」活動彰顯黑人歷史的重要事件,尊重社區與國家領導者並鼓勵向整體變革邁進。 

活動包括作者與詩人講座,以及手工活動等。


本節目由三藩市公立圖書館之友贊助。


活動參與

若有活動相關問題或需協助登記,請發送電郵至sfplcpp@sfpl.org。除非另有說明,所有的活動都歡迎您參加(無需登記報名). 所有三藩市公立圖書館均可供輪椅通行。如需要特別輔助安排(例如美國手語或即時傳譯),請致電 (415) 557-4400 或發送電郵至accessibility@sfpl.org。請至少提前三個工作日提出申請,以確保獲得妥善安排。

請注意:此活動可能會進行錄影或攝影。如您參與此活動,即表示您同意圖書館可使用您的影像,以作圖書館存檔 及活動推廣之用。如果您不希望被拍攝,請告知圖書館員工或攝影師。我們將提供您一張貼紙以作識別,以避免拍攝您。


公告及免責聲明

本節目使用並連接至第三方網站。當您點擊並連接至第三方網站,代表您將會離開三藩市公立圖書館的網站,並進入非三藩市公立圖書館營運的網站。此服務可能會收集有關您的一些個人識別資料,例如姓名、用戶名稱、電郵地址和密碼。此服務將根據其私隱權政策處理已收集屬於您的資料。我們鼓勵您查看您所瀏覽或使用的每個第三方網站或服務的私隱政策,包括您通過我們圖書館服務與之互動的第三方。欲知更多有關第三方網站連接的資訊,請參閱三藩市公立圖書館隱私權政策中「與其他網站的連接」部分。

本活動由與三藩市公立圖書館無關的團體所提出及表達的觀點及意見,並不代表三藩市公立圖書館 (SFPL) 或三藩市官方政策或立場。

如因文字翻譯理解不同, 導致內容有所出入, 應以英文版本為準 。