Yona Harvey is a literary artist residing
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where
she is an Assistant Professor of English
at the University of Pittsburgh.
I love the identifier Literary Artist in Yona's biography,
emphasizing as it does the aesthetic kinship that writers
share with other makers of art.
And our proud yet often unheralded
standing as artists facing the social, political, and economic
challenges that all artists face.
The identifier Literary Artist is also perfect for Yona's work
because of how she creates, using techniques
such as collage and sampling that intersect with visual art
and music.
When you hear her acoustic and rhythmic drive,
you won't be surprised to learn that her muse is
the composer and pianist Mary Lou
Williams, also from Pittsburgh.
Lastly, Literary Artist make sense
because Yona's first book of poetry,
Hemming the Water, published by Four Way Books in 2013,
and the recipient of the 2014 Kate Tufts Discovery Award,
is virtuosic.
Hemming the Water flows through many forms,
each striking in its sonic and expressive power, all of which
Yona works expertly into a larger pattern.
For me, that pattern is the steady rainfall of compassion;
compassion for the wounds that people carry,
the wounds of the Earth, and the pains
of parenting and being parented on this Earth.
Hemming the Water moves us from fear to love;
from the question, there is so much
to fear how will we fear it all?
To the reassurance, is to love, to be born,
in the name of to die, in the name of to be blessed,
in the name of, the name of naming, love.
Let's all welcome Yona Harvey.
[APPLAUSE]