Poet Arthur Flowers: “Literary Blues and the Hoodoo Way – In the Footsteps of MLK”

Memphis-born blues-based poet, novelist, essayist Arthur Flowers will present a combination performance and lecture, Literary Blues and the Hoodoo Way – In the Footsteps of MLK, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the Highsmith Student Union Blue Ridge Room. To set the stage for Flowers’ performance, UNC Asheville’s Afro Music and Dance Ensemble will perform as the opening act. This free event is part of the University’s 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration.

Flowers is associate professor of English at Syracuse University and is former director of the Harlem Writers Guild. His books include Another Good Loving Blues, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21st Century Conjureman, and Brer Rabbit Retold. See complete bio below.

This event is presented by UNC Asheville’s Department of English with support from the NEH Distinguished Professorship and the Mills Fund. For more information, contact Mildred Barya, mbarya@unca.edu.

Building accessibility information is available here.

Accessibility Contact: Highsmith Student Union, highsmithunion@unca.edu or 828.251.6990.

Arthur Flowers bio

Arthur Flowers is a novelist, essayist, and performance poet.  A native of Memphis Tennessee, he is the author of novels, Another Good Loving Blues and De Mojo Blues; a children’s book, Cleveland Lee’s Beale Street Band, and a memoir/manifesto, Mojo Rising: Confessions of a 21^st Century Conjureman and a graphic nonfiction, I See The Promised Land.  He has published shorts and articles and is a bluesbased performance poet.  He is a founding member/director of New Renaissance Writers Guild, NYC, The Griot Shop, Memphis, and the Pan African Literary Forum.  He has been Executive Director of the Harlem Writers Guild.  He has been the recipient of NEA and NYSFA awards in fiction and nonfiction.

His novel in progress, Rest for the Weary, is a meditation on prophecy, destiny, fate and the human condition.  He is also working on a nonfiction work, The Hoodoo Book of Flowers.  He considers having an online literary presence part of being a 21^st Century literary man and has a blog, Rootsblog, a cyberhoodoo webspace.