Deering Estate Literary Artist-in-Residence Dana De Greff will present a contemporary fiction and poetry reading featuring writers-of-color. A site tour of the Deering Estate will also be offered. The event will take place on Saturday, March 17, 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Deering Estate Visitor Center Theatre.
The event is open to the public, welcoming all community members, performing artists, and arts enthusiasts. R.S.V.P. is required on EventBrite as seating is limited to 85 guests. Please see EventBrite page for suggested donations to PageSlayers.
Special panelists will include Moderator Dana De Greff, Jaquira Díaz, Keith S. Wilson, and Andrew Boryga.
About PageSlayers:
PageSlayers Summer Camp, a 2016 Knight Arts Challenge Winner, was born out of the desire to provide free creative writing summer camps to 4th and 5th graders in Opa-Locka, Florida, and to cultivate the next generation of writers-of-color in South Florida. Our camp sessions provide access to in-depth, intensive, and fun explorations of poetry, fiction, memoir, graphic novels, and more. Our lead teachers and supporting teachers are published, professional writers-of-color.
Each PageSlayers session takes place at The Thrive Innovation district (780 Fisherman Street, 2nd Floor, Opa-Locka, FL 33054). We employ published, professional writers-of-color. By sharing their work through performance and publication, these writers will be put in contact with new readers, building literary communities not only in Opa-Locka, but Miami as a whole. PageSlayers introduces students to writing styles outside of the standard elementary school curriculum, and provides a nurturing, supportive environment that encourages creative self-expression and positive experiences with reading and writing.
About our Readers:
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami Beach, Jaquira Díaz is a Kenyon Review Fellow and recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, two fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, and the Carl Djerassi Fiction Fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Best American Essays, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The FADER, the Kenyon Review, Brevity, Gulf Coast, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Tin House, among other publications. This year, she will be a Writer-in-Residence at the Summer Literary Seminars in Georgia and Kenya.
Keith S. Wilson is a game designer, an Affrilachian Poet, Cave Canem fellow, and graduate of the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. He serves as Assistant Poetry Editor at Four Way Review and Digital Media Editor and Web Consultant at Obsidian Journal. He has received scholarships from Bread Loaf, the Millay Colony, Poetry by the Sea, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Chicago State University, and his poetry has been published in 2 chapbooks: Generation Oz (Finishing Line Press, 2011) and Kindermeal (Imaginary Friend Press, 2012), as well as American Letters & Commentary, Drunken Boat, and more. He has had poems nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net award.
Andrew Boryga is a writer who was born and raised in the Bronx, New York and now lives in Miami. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Miami Rail and other outlets. He has attended the Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop and is a Michener Fellow in the University of Miami's Master of Fine Arts program. He is currently at work on his first novel, Double-Dutch, which follows two boys from the Bronx who take different paths as young men and reunite in a startling way as adults.
Dana De Greff holds a Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Miami and has been accepted or awarded scholarships from the TENT, Tin House Summer Writer's Workshop and the Key West Literary Seminar. Her work appears in Philadelphia Stories, PANK, Origins Journal, The Boston Review, and the Miami Herald, among others. Currently, she is at work on her first novel, The Odyssey Hotel; set in modern-day Nicaragua, it follows two Miami actors filming a biopic on Puerto Rican baseball legend, Roberto Clemente.
With the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc., and The Knight Foundation.
About the Deering Estate:
The Deering Estate preserves the 1920s era Miami estate of Charles Deering, Chicago industrialist, early preservationist, environmentalist, art collector, philanthropist and first chairman of the International Harvester Company. Nestled along the coast in South Dade, the Deering Estate is a cultural asset and historic site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As a 21st Century museum destination for tourists and local residents, signature events, programs and preservation of our history positions the Deering Estate as an iconic marker for our community's cultural identity and memory. The Deering Estate's first 30 years were marked by preservation and conservation of these rich cultural and ecological resources and our future continues to build upon this wonderful legacy of stewardship envisioned by Charles Deering.
