Library EventMission Creek - Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib and Iowa Youth Writing Project Workshop

Presenter: Hanif Abdurraqib

Mission Creek Festival and the Iowa Youth Writing Project present a Erasure Poetry Workshop with author and poet Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. Hanif will work with participants to craft imaginative and surprising erasure poems, largely by taking lyrics from popular music and erasing them to create original works.

Teen participants are encouraged to register at the Iowa Youth Writing Project site so they have an idea of participant size: https://iywp.org/programs/special-programs

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, writer, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. His essays and music criticism have been published in The FADER, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. With Big Lucks, Hanif released a limited edition chapbook, Vintage Sadness, in Summer 2017. He is a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow and previously worked for MTV News, where he wrote about the intersections of music, culture, and identity. Hanif also wrote the 2016 live shows: MTV Video Music Awards and VH1’s Unsilent Night. His first full length collection, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, was one of 2016s best-selling poetry books and was named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book prize. Hanif's debut collection of essays titled, They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, was published November of 2017 via Two Dollar Radio. He is a member of the poetry collective Echo Hotel with poet/essayist Eve L. Ewing.