UM-Flint Review

FLINT, MI – July 14, 2020:

Flint’s first poet laureate, Semaj Brown, presents Word Power: How words define and confine our reality, a virtual performance and interactive discussion. The event takes place Thursday, August 13, at 7:00 p.m. and can be accessed on Zoom or Facebook Live. Attendees can register by going to http://go.umflint.edu/wordpower.

Viewers will experience readings from Brown’s book Bleeding Fire! Tap the Eternal Spring of Regenerative Light: Conversations in Poetry and Prose, including performances by Billie Scott Lindo, artistic director of Flint’s New McCree Theatre, and James Brown, MD—Flint area physician and the author’s husband.

Following the performance, UM-Flint Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics Erica Britt will moderate a discussion on the power words exert over our everyday lives—why do we choose the words we do, what do names truly mean, and who has the power to name? Discussion panelists include former Flintside Managing Editor Alexandria Brown, UM-Flint student David Guster, and author Xzavier V. Simon

According to Brown, this event will help us gain insight into the power of ordinary words:
“In this time of upheaval, in this time of great change, time of grief and triumph—poetry is microphone, earbuds to the heart. Poetry is microscope, exposing the hidden and the hazardous. Poetry is magnet, drawing out, and dragging from us the pooling pus of oppression. We need our words to be art: sculpting and painting, fabric working new threads of freedom. We need our words to be science: measuring and dissecting, deconstructing the obsolete
paradigms of injustice. We need words to be —OUR words.“

Britt has published research on how language influences the world around us. She believes exploring how we speak can help us discover new things about ourselves and our community. “Words have the power to shape how we view – and act – in the world around us.  Words create our reality so by creatively using language we have the power to redefine our experience.”

About the College of Arts & Sciences at UM-Flint:
The College of Arts and Sciences transforms lives through the power of a comprehensive
education rooted in theory and practice. Centered in Flint, we are an inclusive community of
teachers, scholars, artists, and practitioners across a diverse array of disciplines. Our students,
staff, and faculty empower each other to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and empathy
to effect positive change locally and globally. Above all, we are committed to the core values of
the University of Michigan-Flint: academic excellence, student centeredness, and engaged
citizenship.