The Poetics of Witness
Inspired by the exhibition The Bitter Years: Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, join us for a panel discussion that examines the boundaries between the personal and the political, the ethics of documentation, and the use of art for creating civic and social change.
$20 Members | $30 Non-Members | $15 Student/Faculty
Our Speakers:
MARJORY WENTWORTH is the New York Times bestselling author of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets (with Kwame Alexander and Chris Colderley). Her poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize seven times. She is also the co-writer of We Are Charleston, Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers and Taking a Stand, The Evolution of Human Rights, with Juan E. Mendez. She served as the poet laureate of South Carolina from 2003-2017. In 2020, she was named a National Coalition Against Censorship Free Speech is for Me Advocate. Wentworth teaches courses in writing, social justice, and banned books at The College of Charleston and Wright State University. Wentworth was named a Black Earth Institute Fellow 2022-25.
TITUS HEAGINS is a photographer who currently lives and works in Durham, NC. He has traveled extensively throughout North Carolina, the southwestern United States, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, the Caribbean, and China to produce a diverse body of work. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University, and an M.F.A. in Photography from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has taught photography and art history courses at numerous colleges and universities, including the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; the Durham Arts Council; and the Center for Documentary Studies, Durham.
GARY JACKSON is the author of the poetry collections origin story and Missing You, Metropolis, which received the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and co-editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry. He’s an associate professor in English and creative writing at the College of Charleston.