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Kwame Dawes: The Art of Bob Marley
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Blackwell Auditorium, 7:30 p.m. |
On Thursday, May 7, 2009, Randolph-Macon College will host Jamaican poet, writer, actor and playwright Kwame Dawes for a lecture titled “The Art of Bob Marley.” The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Blackwell Auditorium in the R-MC Center for the Performing Arts. This event is sponsored by the Merrill Munyan Fund and the Washington Literary Society. It is free and open to the public.
Born in Ghana and raised in Jamaica, Kwame Dawes has been inspired by the rhythms and textures of reggae music since childhood. He is known internationally for his book, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, (Bobcat Books, 2007) which is considered the most authoritative study of the lyrics of Bob Marley. Dawes is also an accomplished poet with 13 full collections of poetry published, including his latest collections, She’s Gone and Gomer’s Song (Akashic Books, 2008). In addition, he has written many critical essays on literature, theater and film that have appeared in a cornucopia of journals and other literacy sources. He was also the lead singer of the reggae band Ujamaa.
Dawes, who is often called “the busiest man in literature today,” was educated at Jamaica College, the University of the West Indies at Mona and earned his Ph.D. at the University of New Brunswick. Currently, he is the Distinguished Poet in Residence and the Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina, where he is also director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative.
Merrill C. Munyan graduated from Wesleyan University in 1930 and completed graduate studies in 18th-century English history at Duke University. He joined the faculty at R-MC in 1946 and eventually became chairman of the history department. Early in his tenure, Munyan was instrumental in reorganizing the college’s Washington Literary Society, which sponsored visits of well-known American poets and novelists to the R-MC campus. Munyan retired from R-MC in 1973.
For more information on this and other R-MC events, please contact Pam Harris Cox at 752-3712, pamelacox@rmc.edu or Anne Marie Lauranzon at 804-752-7317, alauranz@rmc.edu.