Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic whose work has been recognized with a MacArthur “genius” grant. His essay collection, A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance was a finalist for the National Book Award, and it won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. The New York Times describes Mr. Abdurraqib’s latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, as “a meditation on beauty, grief and mortality through the lens of basketball and Columbus, Ohio.” He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Educational Studies and The Sylvia Ellins Fund.