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Photo Credit: Sherrie Y.
Young
Poet Carl Phillips, 1998 National Book Award Poetry
Finalist, (back, center) visits with elementary and
junior-high students from Southeast Neighborhood Centers'
after-school program.
Poet Carl Phillips inaugurated the 1999 Settlement
House Author Residency Program when he divided his week-long
visit among three Settlement Houses from April 12 to
April 16.
Mr. Phillips has won numerous awards and grants for
his poetry, including being a Finalist for the 1998
National Book Award for his book, From the Devotions.
His work has been published in the following anthologies:
African American Literature, Best American Poetry
1996, 1995, and 1994, Best of the Best American Poetry,
The Garden Thrives: Twentieth Century African-American
Poetry, Literature: Thinking, Reading, and Writing Critically.
At the time of this residency, Mr. Phillips was an Associate
Professor in the Department of English and the African
and Afro-American Studies Program at Washington University,
St. Louis, MO.
Mr. Phillips begin his residency by meeting with two
groups of well-prepared teenagers at East Side House
Settlement in the Bronx for two consecutive days, where
he conducted informal writing workshops, gave them assignments,
and critiqued their work.
At Southeast Bronx Neighborhood Center, Mr. Phillips
met with elementary and junior-high students from the
after-school program, mentally challenged young-adults,
and young-adults studying for their GED. Younger readers
received copies of Poetry in Motion: 100 Poems from
the Subways and Buses, while the older readers received
From the Devotions. Younger readers presented Mr. Phillips
with artwork and stories produced from reading Poetry
in Motion. The young-adults studying for their GED had
a multitude of questions for Mr. Phillips regarding
his poems. "I'm impressed on how well they understood
my poems," he stated.
Mr. Phillips last settlement house visit was to the
Lenox Hill Neighborhood Women's Shelter in Manhattan.
After he read some of his poems, spoke about poetry,
and answered questions, the women told Mr. Phillips
that his visit was the best event they had at the center.
A few women were reminded that they used to write and
were inspired to begin again.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosted a free public-event,
featuring Mr. Phillips, where he read many off his new
poems. A question-and-answer session, a reception, and
a book signing followed the reading.
The National Book Foundation presented
three author residencies in City Settlements in the
spring of 1999 with support from the Theodore H. Barth
Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts,
and R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company.
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Carl
Phillips at
