In years past, the ALA conference often coincided with the locals' prom night, and well-dressed teens in stretch limos navigated through academics in stretch jeans. Other times, in Boston, we shared space with an Anime conference, which left us with the job of discerning who was doing cos play and who was just a professor. This year, it was just us and the tourists, still hard to distinguish a distinguished professor from someone visiting to learn about Emerson.
I was once more on a panel with a powerful assemblage of Amiri Baraka scholars. But I also got to a panel on Ronald Johnson and several other most instructive and rewarding sessions, especially a round table on women and poetry. Our Baraka sessions featured contributors to a collection that will be published by Ohio State University, edited by Jean-Philippe Marcoux.
This year's recipient of the Darwin Turner Award was Keith Byerman. The Stephen Henderson Award recipient was John Edgar Wideman. Richard Yarborough and Anthony Reed joined Keith in presenting selections from Wideman's works.
The last event I attended was a staged reading, sponsored by the Pauline Hopkins Society.
The it was, of course, off to the Brazilian Steak House.
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