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X-WR-CALNAME:One Nation Under Bars: Poetry\, Witness\, and the Possibili
 ty of Freedom featuring the Forced N2 Greatness Collective with Hanif Abd
 urraqib and Antonio Lopez
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260617T124812Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_51816469211254
DTSTART:20260127T030000Z
DTEND:20260127T043000Z
DESCRIPTION:The Stanford Humanities Center\, Critical Carceral Studies Coll
 ective\, and Public Humanities invite you to One Nation Under Bars: Poetry
 \, Witness\, and the Possibility of Freedom featuring the Forced N2 Greatn
 ess Collective with Hanif Abdurraqib and Antonio Lopez. The Collective is 
 composed of Brian Shepperd\, Pharaoh Elisha Brooks\, and Trey Xavier Watki
 ns. Join for a night of live poetry and creative work by system impacted w
 riters followed by a conversation with the readers on art\, justice\, and 
 community. \n\nRSVP required to attend in person.\n\nRegister to watch the
  event online. \n\nAntonio López is currently finishing his PhD in the Mo
 dern Thought and Literature program at Stanford University and is San Mate
 o County’s 2025-2027 Poet Laureate. López is a poetician at the interse
 ctions of the arts\, policy\, and social change. The first in his family t
 o graduate from college\, he holds degrees from Duke University\, Rutgers-
 Newark\, and the University of Oxford as a 2018 Marshall Scholar. His poet
 ry and essays have appeared in numerous publications\, anthologies and pod
 casts including Poetry Foundation\, Latino Poetry: The Library of America 
 Anthology\, The Slowdown\, Poetry Daily\, among others. His first book of 
 poetry\, Gentefication\, was selected by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Gre
 gory Pardlo for the 2019 Levis Prize in Poetry published by Four Way Books
 . His second book\, The Right to Remain Violets\, is forthcoming from the 
 University of Arizona Press. Antonio served his hometown as a councilmembe
 r and mayor for the City of East Palo Alto.\n\nHanif Abdurraqib is an awar
 d-winning poet\, essayist\, and cultural critic from Columbus\, Ohio and t
 he 2025-26 Denning Visiting Artist at Stanford. His newest release\, There
 's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House\, 2024) was
  a New York Times Bestseller and longlisted for the National Book Award in
  nonfiction and the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for C
 riticism. His previous book\, A Little Devil In America (Random House\, 20
 21) was a winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and the Gordon Burn Prize. I
 n 2021\, Abdurraqib was named a MacArthur Fellow\, and in 2024 was named a
  Windham-Campbell Prize recipient. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High Sch
 ool.\n\nForced N2 Greatness Collective: \n\nPharaoh Elisha Brooks is the S
 ubstance Use Disorder Treatment Program Director for Kingdom Builders Tran
 sitional Program. He was fortunate enough to be found suitable from the pa
 role board after being incarcerated for 17 and a half years. Today\, Phara
 oh is a writer\, author\, musician\, producer\, poet\, actor\, counselor\,
  rapper\, and singer. His EP\, Building 18: The Hip Hop Poetry Project\, i
 s available on Spotify and Apple Music and he is working on his first nove
 l. He feels fortunate to share his story to help uplift the same type of c
 ommunities he once tore down.\n\nBrian Shepperd\, co-creator and co-host o
 f the podcast The Th3rd Bridge\, lives a life that embodies resilience\, t
 ransformation\, and leadership born from lived experience. Brian spent nea
 rly 30 years in most of California’s worst prisons. Once immersed in gan
 gs and survival culture\, he made the decision to turn his focus inward\, 
 transforming those same hard-edged lessons into tools for growth\, account
 ability\, and healing. Today\, Brian\, who uses the pen name b.anthony.she
 pperd\, is the published poet behind the book Confessions of a Compassiona
 te Felon\, a community builder\, and an advocate. He leads with empathy an
 d credibility\, speaking from the place of someone who has lived the reali
 ties of incarceration and emerged determined to uplift others.\n\nTrey Xav
 ier Watkins is a jack of many trades. A musician\, playwright\, novelist\,
  screenwriter\, motivational speaker\, and mentor\, he finds balance in th
 e breadth of his pursuits. He has published eight novels\, including his c
 rowning work The Creation\, Death\, and Resurrection of Theodore C. Andrew
 s III. Drawing from a past that includes life as a bank robber\, drug addi
 ction\, and 27 years behind bars\, Trey offers audiences a unique perspect
 ive on politics\, relationships\, and the justice system. He came to reali
 ze later in life that everything he endured had a purpose: it was his to w
 rite about.
GEO:37.424764;-122.172243
LOCATION:Stanford Humanities Center\, Levinthal Hall
SUMMARY:One Nation Under Bars: Poetry\, Witness\, and the Possibility of
  Freedom featuring the Forced N2 Greatness Collective with Hanif Abdurraq
 ib and Antonio Lopez
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.stanford.edu/event/onenationunderbars-poetry-w
 itness-and-the-possibility-of-freedomfeaturing-the-forced-n2-greatness-col
 lective-with-hanif-abdurraqib-and-antonio-lopez
CATEGORIES:Lecture/Presentation/Talk
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