CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION, INC. A Home For Black Poetry 2018 ANNUAL REPORT Get Involved There are countless ways to get involved with Cave Canem Foundation. To be a part of our rapidly growing community, visit cavecanempoets.org for more information or email us at [email protected]. Get in Touch @CaveCanemPoets @CaveCanemPoets @CaveCanemPoets Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. Cave Canem Foundation Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. 20 Jay Street, Suite 310-A Brooklyn, NY 11201-8301 © 2018 CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED TABLE OF CONTENTS ANNUAL RETREAT “I have faith in my work MISSION Cave Canem’s flagship retreat, annually held at the that I never had before. I am Letter from the President .................................................1 University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, offers considering myself as a serious Cave Canem Foundation an unparalleled opportunity to join a community of peers writer and that my work means Cave Canem Awarded 2018 Spark Prize is a home for the many and study with world-class faculty. Once accepted to something serious to the state of voices of African American the retreat, poets become lifelong “fellows.” Cave Canem contemporary arts and letters.” boasts a high-achieving fellowship of more than 450. Annual Retreat.......................................................................2 poetry and is committed to —2018 Cave Canem Fellow cultivating the artistic and professional growth of Community Achievements ...............................................3 African American poets. THIRD-YEAR GRADUATING FELLOWS Public Programs ....................................................................4-5 FELLOW PROFILE Photo credit: Jayhoun Allebaugh The Team From left to right: Brionne Janae, Matthew Broaddus, Cortney Lamar Charleston, Dustin Pearson, Jessica Lanay, Essence London & Maya Marshell Institutional and Individual Donors ..............................6 CAVE CANEM AWARDED 2018 SPARK PRIZE Financial Report Cave Canem was named a recipient of Brooklyn FACULTY Community Foundation’s Every year, a distinguished cohort of the country’s most second annual Spark Prize, influential, daring and groundbreaking poets make up the TYEHIMBA JESS a distinction that includes a faculty at Cave Canem’s retreat. The recipient of a 2018 Guggenheim fellowship, grant award of $100,000. a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee and a Cave Canem fellow, Tyehimba Jess is the LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT THIS YEAR’S FACULTY author of Olio, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, and Leadbelly, which won the Dear friends and supporters, 2004 National Poetry Series. We are proud to present you with Cave Canem Foundation’s “Single handedly, [Cave 2018 Annual Report. Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte Canem] has been responsible and Cornelius Eady, Cave Canem Foundation has become the CHRIS ABANI CORNELIUS EADY for fostering the careers of leading “home for black poetry.” Board of Trustees Professor, English Professor, MFA Program in Creative Writing and at Northwestern University; winner, Literature at SUNY Stony Brook Southampton; hundreds of black poets who Guggenheim Award finalist, 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Drama Please find enclosed details on the organization’s recent have gone on to win nearly From left to right: Cave Canem co-founder Cornelius developments. This includes highlighted achievements over Eady, executive director Nicole Sealey, Cave Canem every poetry award and book fellow Zakia Henderson-Brown and board member the past year—such as Cave Canem receiving the 2018 Spark Tyehimba Jess receive the Spark Prize at the Spark prize available.” Prize—and fellows being awarded several of the highest Breakfast ceremony. —Fellow and Pulitzer literary honors. We are continuing on the path of new growth, Prize-winner Tyehimba Jess structure and leadership to help champion our mission of remedying the under-representation and isolation of African EVIE SHOCKLEY AMBER FLORA THOMAS American poets. Professor, English at Rutgers Professor, Creative Writing at University; finalist, 2018 East Carolina University; winner, “Receiving the Spark Prize Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Richard Peterson Poetry Prize; GUEST POET Warmly, highlights our influence beyond winner, Ann Stanford Poetry Prize the literary arts. Cave Canem is also a service and justice- FORMER FACULTY Parneshia Jones, President oriented organization for the Elizabeth Alexander Erica Hunt Ed Roberson Cave Canem Foundation, Inc. Cyrus Cassells Angela Jackson Sonia Sanchez, Elder people of Brooklyn.” Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon Major Jackson Tim Seibles —Isissa Komada-John, Grants Manager Lucille Clifton, Elder Ruth Ellen Kocher Ntozake Shange (1936–2010) Yusef Komunyakaa Reginald Shepherd Kwame Dawes Dawn Lundy Martin Evie Shockley Toi Derricotte Colleen J. McElroy Patricia Smith Nikky Finney Harryette Mullen Natasha Trethewey ROBIN COSTE LEWIS C. S. Giscombe Marilyn Nelson, Elder Afaa M. Weaver, Elder Provost's Fellow, Poetry and Visual Studies Michael S. Harper, Elder Willie Perdomo Al Young, Elder at the University of Southern California; (1938–2016) Carl Phillips Kevin Young winner, 2015 National Book Award in Poetry Terrance Hayes Claudia Rankine 1 Cave Canem Foundation Cave Canem Foundation 2 COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENTS BOOKS PUBLISHED PUBLIC PROGRAMS Awards garnered by Cave Canem fellows, faculty and Cave Canem’s 2018 program offerings reached more than BOOK PRIZES elders include, among many others, the Pulitzer Prize, the 3,000 audience members through nearly 45 public pro- WINNER, National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle grams and contracted over 160 artists. Programs included 2018 CAVE CANEM POETRY PRIZE: Award and the National Poetry Series award. Cave Canem Legacy Conversations with poets and scholars who have Malcolm Tariq’s Heed the Hollow fellows have 325+ books in print. MAHOGANY L. BROWNE historically played important roles in black poetry; a Black Girl Magic: A Poem Lectures & Master Classes Series, bringing thought and WINNER, 2018 TOI DERRICOTTE & CORNELIUS scholarship to the forefront; rare opportunities to work SELECT AWARDS AND HONORS EADY CHAPBOOK PRIZE IN POETRY: with accomplished poets through community-based Mia S. Willis’ monster house. writing workshops; Poets on Craft, featuring mid-career poets in conversation with each other; and New Works WINNER, 2018 CAVE CANEM NORTHWESTERN MITCHELL L.H. Readings, showcasing the latest publications from the UNIVERSITY PRESS POETRY PRIZE: DOUGLAS Cave Canem community. Through our growing institu- Tsitsi Jaji’s Mother Tongues Dying in the tional partnerships, our organization offered residencies Scarecrow’s Arms ELIZABETH ACEVEDO SAFIA ELHILLO to and secured speaking engagements through our Winner, 2018 National Book Award Recipient, 2018 Ruth Lilly and Poets Tour program for Cave Canem fellows. in Young People's Literature Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg for The Poet X; winner, 2018-19 Poetry Fellowship New York City Book Award PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS Kelly-Strayhorn Theater Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Bryant Park Reading Room Langston Hughes Community Library SELF-CARE, VULNERABILITY Center for African American Poetry and Cultural Center AND RESILIENCE: DISARMING & Poetics Rose O’Neill Literary House CORNELIUS EADY INTERSECTIONAL MICROAGGRESSIONS The War Against Poetry Foundation Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown the Obvious City College of New York Millay Colony Brooklyn Museum Vermont Studio Center New York City Department Community of Writers at Squaw Valley of Environmental Protection RICKEY LAURENTIIS JUSTIN PHILLIP REED Winner, 2018 Whiting Award Winner, 2018 National Book Award in Poetry for Indecency JULIAN RANDALL Refuse A MASTER CLASS WITH Finalist, NAACP Image NICOLE L. JACKSON, PH.D. Award for Outstanding The second installment in Cave Canem’s Literary Work in Poetry Anti-Oppression Series, a set of workshops that facilitate conversations about institutional oppression and how to challenge it. ALISON C. ROLLINS EVIE SHOCKLEY Winner, 2018 Rona Jaffe Winner, 2018 Hurston/Wright A TRIBUTE TO JUNE JORDAN Foundation Writers’ Award Legacy Award in Poetry; This day-long conference offered an intergenerational finalist, 2018 Pulitzer Prize TRACY K. SMITH exploration of the legendary poet's life, work and legacy. in Poetry for semiautomatic Wade in the Water: Poems “I will never forget this class Shortlisted, 2018 Forward The tribute included panels, discussions and readings Prize for Best Collection; with more than a dozen Cave Canem fellows, attracting because it gave me what I've shortlisted, T.S. Eliot Prize an audience of nearly 400. always wanted but never thought (or dared dream) PARTNERS I could have.” Center for the Humanities at The Institute for Research on the African the Graduate Center, CUNY Diaspora in the Americas and —Workshop Participant Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics the Caribbean (IRADAC) Document Initiative The Feminist Press at CUNY NATASHA TRETHEWEY The June M. Jordan Literary Estate Trust DANEZ SMITH PATRICIA SMITH Monument: Poems Winner, 2018 Forward Finalist, 2018 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry New and Selected Prize for Best Collection for Incendiary Art: Poems; winner, 2018 Longlisted, 2018 National for Don’t Call Us Dead Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; finalist, Book Award in Poetry 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; “There was a high level of electricity in the room. winner, NAACP Image Award for It was generated by deep commitment to the cause of Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry creating a place for people of many kinds.” —Audience Member