Poet R. Flowers Rivera to read in Asheville in honor of National Poetry Month

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Press release here:

ASHEVILLE, NC — NC Stage and the UNCA Literature and Language Department, in celebration of National Poetry Month, are proud to present celebrated poet R. Flowers Rivera. Rivera, who will read from her latest collection, Troubling Accents. Rivera utilizes poetry to speak to conditions of race, gender, and personal identity in the South, often merging traditional assumptions with modern re-interpretations and empowerment.

On Monday, April 21, Rivera will be the featured reader for the ongoing Altamont Reading Series at NC Stage, 15 Stage Lane in downtown Asheville. This series takes place the third Monday of each month. Doors open at 7 p.m. Rivera will begin at 7:30 p.m and be followed by an open mic. Admission is $5.

On Tuesday, April 22, at 6 p.m., the Literature and Language Department at UNCA will host a reading by R. Flowers Rivera in the Glasshouse, a lecture hall/green house adjoined to Ramsey Library on the campus of UNC-Asheville. This is event is free and open to the public.

“The American South of the nation’s imagination usually consists of little more than caricatures. ‘Designing Women,’ Jeff Foxworthy, moon pies, mint juleps, ignorance, and violence. Yet, my home place is much more complex. I want to serve as a witness, a go-between, to offer yet another perspective of the music and the language.

“I can’t deny that the labels are useful as a kind of shorthand: female, Black, Southern, Catholic, bisexual, lover, teacher, poet, mother, daughter, wife,” explains poet R. Flowers Rivera. “However, at some point, one understands that she must subvert the identities. How long or why does a person continue to have allegiances to groups who want demand that you deny parts of yourself?”

To view Rivera’s work, visit http://promethea.com.