Biography

Malaika Favorite is a visual artist and a poet, her publications include Dreaming at the Manor (Finishing Line Press, 2014), and Illuminated Manuscript (New Orleans Poetry Journal Press, 1991). Favorite won the 2015 Broadside Lotus Press Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for her collection of poems, Ascension (Broadside Lotus Press, 2016). Her poetry, fiction, and articles have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals.

Schedule

11 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
State Library of Louisiana, Capitol View Room
Reading
Louisiana Poets, Part I

Noon to 12:45 p.m.
State Library of Louisiana, Capitol View Room
Reading
Down to the Dark River

1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.
Barnes & Noble Bookselling Tent
Book Signing

Ascension

Ascension is a collection of poems rooted in the Africana folkways, lore, and history of Louisiana. Palpable images pull the reader into the turbulent waters and horrors of the Atlantic slave trade, into homes battered by relentless rain and a flooding river, and finally to moments of contemplation and reverence for the land. With a measured, lean, and luminous style, the poet shares her intimate experience of place—home, familiar rituals, sites of historic resonance, and consciousness of the power and beauty of the natural world.

Down the River Dark: Contemporary Poems about the Mississippi River (contributor)

Down to the Dark River: Contemporary Poems about the Mississippi River contains the work of 100 poets, including Dick Allen, Joseph Bathanti, Kelly Cherry, Malaika Favorite, Ava Leavell Haymon, Yusef Komunyakaa, Ted Kooser, Linda Pastan, Virgil Suarez, and Natasha Trethewey.