Title
Celebrating the Selection of Jericho Brown's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poems, The Tradition, for the 2021 "One Book, One Philadelphia" Program.
Body
WHEREAS, Since its founding in 1891, the Free Library of Philadelphia has worked to build an enlightened community devoted to lifelong learning; and
WHEREAS, Now, in its nineteenth year, the Free Library of Philadelphia's "One Book, One Philadelphia" is a signature project of the Free Library of Philadelphia. It promotes literacy, library usage, and civic dialogue by encouraging the entire greater Philadelphia area to come together through the sharing of ideas, and the joy of reading; and
WHERAS, This year's One Book, One Philadelphia selection is The Tradition, a Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of poems by renowned writer Jericho Brown; and
WHEREAS, Brown is an associate professor and the director of the creative writing program at Emory University in Atlanta, who earned a PhD from the University of Houston, an MFA from the University of New Orleans, and a BA from Dillard University. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and he is the winner of the Whiting Award; and
WHEREAS, Brown's first book, Please (2008), won the American Book Award, and his second book, The New Testament (2014), was named one of the best poetry books of the year by Library Journal and received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and
WHEREAS, Brown's third collection, The Tradition (2019) questions why and how we've become accustomed to terror. From mass shootings to intimate partner violence to racialized violence against unarmed Black and brown people by police, The Tradition challenges fears and beliefs handed down through generations. These powerful poems explore experiences of Blackness, queerness, masculinity, family, spirituality, and the natural world; and
WHEREAS, Brown invites readers to e...
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