Lone Star College-CyFair’s Open Dialogue 2020 event features a day of discussions March 30 addressing the complexities of identity and human interaction with acclaimed writer and poet, Jericho Brown.

Open Dialogue is an annual opportunity to engage the college and community in an issue of significance, said Dr. Roberta Short, committee chair. The point is to expose attendees to thoughts and ideas that are intellectually invigorating, but sometimes controversial as well.

“Brown’s poetry speaks to confusion, difficulty, and the ongoing desire for connection despite difference, hardship, and estrangement,” Dr. Short said. “The courage of his work is a gift for the reader and listener.”

Community members are invited to participate in this spring event titled “Embracing Difference.” Join Brown for a community reading from his works at 7 p.m. in the Main Stage Theatre, located in the Center for the Arts.

This award-winning poet grew up in Louisiana and worked as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans before earning his Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. He is a Winship Distinguished Research Professor in Creative Writing and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta.

Brown is also the author of three collections of poetry: The Tradition, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award; The New Testament, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was named one of the best of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets; and Please, which won the 2009 American Book Award.

Following Brown’s community reading will be an audience Q&A, book sale and book signing.

Prior to this free community event, Brown will spend his day with LSC-CyFair faculty and students at interdisciplinary panel discussions on race, sexual identity and human connection. He will discuss his use of poetry as a means of witnessing, documenting, or meditating on human connection, love, abuse and violence.

For event information, email Roberta.H.Short@LoneStar.edu or go to LoneStar.edu/cyfair.