A Voice from the Nondead Past: Rethinking Lucille Clifton

The recent posthumous publication of the collected poems of Lucille Clifton, and the acquisition of her archive by Emory University provide the opportunity to consider the work of this great American poet in its full dimension. This talk by Professor Elizabeth Alexander will reframe her ouvre and focus specifically on the philosophical underpinnings of poems that speak across the porous scrim between life and death that is a premised understanding of Cliftons work.