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Award-winning writer Honorée Fanonne Jeffers will discuss and read selections from her latest collection of poetry and prose, The Age of Phillis (2020), in a virtual event on April 15, part of the culminating ceremonies for The Caged Bird Sings Poetry Festival. Based on 15 years of archival research, Jeffers imagines the life and times of Phillis Wheatley Peters—her childhood in the Gambia, West Africa, her life with her white American owners, her friendship with Obour Tanner, and her marriage to the enigmatic John Peters.

For more than 20 years, Jeffers has been lifting her voice on issues of Black culture, racism, American history, and gender through her writing. The Age of Phillis, her most recent collection, was long-listed for the National Book Award in Poetry and nominated for the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry.

The 2021 Edmund S. and Nathalie Rumowicz Annual Lecture is a virtual event, free and open to the public. For more information, contact Martha Elena Rojas at martharojas@uri.edu.