Thursdays at the Handwerker is pleased to present a reading by nationally-recognized artist, actor, playwright, and performance poet Michelle Courtney Berry on September 21st at 7:00 p.m.
Berry has been published by Random House and the University of Michigan Press, as well as in many journals including nocturnes (re)view of the literary arts, Paterson Literary Review, Cokefish, Celebrating Voices: A Journal of Feminist Expression, and Obsidian II.
Berry is currently the Poet Laureate of Tompkins County. She has held this post since 2005 and was re-appointed for another term in 2006. The Month of Not Speaking, her first complete book of poems was also adapted into a one-woman show at the Kitchen Theater in Ithaca. Her “Soulful Goddess Tour” was performed nationwide. As a performing poet she has opened for fellow poets Nikki Giovanni and is a fellow of the Cave Canem Poets Collective, a prestigious national organization of African-American poets. She has also attended the Breadloaf Writers' Conference in the genre of poetry.
Berry’s current manuscript, Labor, premiered as a one-woman show this year at the Kitchen Theater and will tour in 2007. Her Thursdays at the Handwerker performance will feature material from this body of work.
All Handwerker Gallery events are free and open to the public. For further information please contact Kalia Armbruster, Handwerker Gallery Programming Assistant, at karmbru1@ithaca.edu or 607-274-3018.
