LENELLE MOÏSE, SPOKEN WORD ARTIST, PLAYWRIGHT, AND POET LAUREATE OF NORTHAMPTON to Read at Smith College

EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW. THE READING WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR ANOTHER DATE THIS SPRING!

The Poetry Center at Smith College and the Northampton Arts Council are teaming up to present a reading by Lenelle Moïse, spoken word artist, playwright, and Poet Laureate of Northampton, on Tuesday, February 1st at 7:30 pm in Weinstein Auditorium, Wright Hall.

This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.

Lenelle Moïse received an MFA in Playwriting from Smith in 2004, and regularly performs at colleges, theatres, and festivals across the USA and Canada, including guest appearances at the United Nations, the Louisiana Superdome and the Omega Institute. “Expatriate” launched to critical acclaim Off-Broadway at the Culture Project in 2008, and Moïse was also a contributing writer for We Got Issues, a "performance-based dialogue" produced by Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, and the Next Wave of Women in Power. This past summer she premiered her tenth play, Merit, at the Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival. 

A Haitian-American, self-identified “culturally hyphenated pomosexual poet,” Moïse has published poems and essays in several journals and anthologies, among them Utne Reader, Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution, and We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists.

The Smith College Sophian called Lenelle Moïse “a slam-style poet, playwright, actor, author and queer feminist [who] fuses issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and politics.” Moïse, who experiments with collage as a visual medium, is truly a “genre-b(l)ending artist” in all endeavors. Her work is part love song, part battle cry, rich sounds dancing and clanging against each other. Driven by fierce momentum, her voice blurs the line between harsh-tongued hip-hop and intimate whisper. Curve Magazine calls her debut poetry CD Madivinez "Piercing, covering territory both intimate and political...vivid and powerful."

Moïse was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has lived in Northampton since 2002.

Among Moïse’s many honors are 2003 New WORLD Theater Poetry Slam Champion, the James Baldwin Memorial Award in Playwriting (2003 and 2004), the Patchwork Majority Radio Award for Best Solo Album of 2007 for Madivinez, and the 2009-2010 Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund Award in Poetry. Most recently, she was named Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA, for 2010-2012.

The Northampton Poet Laureate position is a two-year term during which the poet will be responsible for educating the public of the importance of poetry through activities of interest to the chosen poet. This year the selection committee of the Northampton Arts Council focused on choosing a poet laureate, who would highlight innovative, dynamic and performative qualities found in poetry. The selection committee read poetry by various nominees, discussed a wide range of qualities, and considered their success in larger poetry circles. By majority vote, Lenelle Moïse was selected.

Or contact Ellen Doré Watson, Smith College Poetry Center director, at 413-585-3368 or Sondra Peron, Northampton Arts Council, 413-587-1069.