Reception And Release Of Limited Edition Artist Book "The Battle Of And For The Black Face Boy" By Nikky Finney - Book Signing Event

Announcing Nikky Finney's visit to the Driskell Center for book signing event

Head Off & Split by Nikky Finney is the University of Maryland’s 2015-2016 First Year Book. An artist book of Finny’s poem “The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy” commissioned by the Artist Partner Program at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland printed in collaboration with the David C. Driskell Center will be released and the author will speak about her work and sign her limited edition artist book. Nikky Finney was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). The John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Southern Letters and Literature at the University of South Carolina, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets. Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.