Tagged: poetry

In today's Kentucky Derby, jockey Kevin Krigger will have a chance to become the first African-American jockey to win the Derby since 1902. African-American jockeys were dominant in the Derby's formative years. Most of the jockeys in the first Derby were black, including the winner.

One of the most legendary African-American jockeys was Isaac Murphy. Murphy rode to victory in three Kentucky Derby races and is considered one of the best jockeys of all time. Murphy is the subject of a collection of poems by Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker.

Louisville native Mitchell L.H. Douglas returns home tonight to read from his new collection of poems, “\blak\ \al-fə bet\,” which won the 2011 Lexi Rudnitsky Editor's Choice Award from Persea Books. Douglas reads from his new work tonight at the InKY Reading Series, 7-9 p.m. at The Bard's Town on Bardtown Road.

Douglas' first collection, "Cooling Board: a Long-Playing Poem," a finalist for the 2010 NAACP Image Awards, explored the life and death of soul singer Donny Hathaway, but “\blak\ \al-fə bet\” is a more personal collection of poems about Douglas' Southern family after the death of its matriarch. 

Danville native Frank X Walker made history last week when Governor Steve Beshear appointed him the next Kentucky poet laureate. Walker is the state’s first African American poet laureate, and at 51, he’s also the youngest.

Kentucky’s poet laureate will read from her new book in the Axton Reading Series at the University of Louisville tomorrow.

Morehead will read from her new collection of poems, “Late August Blues: the Daylily Poems,” in U of L’s Ekstrom Library, in the Chao Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Morehead is also the author of "In a Yellow Room," "Our Brothers’ War," "A Sense of Time Left" and "The Melancholy Teacher." She teaches in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Spalding University.