MASTER
 
 

Exile Studies: Poetry Reading with Abena P. A. Busia

By The Betsy-South Beach (other events)

Sunday, October 7 2018 2:00 PM 4:00 PM EDT
 
ABOUT ABOUT

The Betsy - South Beach and FIU Exhile Studies present a reading with Dr. Abena P. A. Busia, the Fall 2018 Exile Studies Scholar and Writer in Residence.

Noted Ghanaian poet, scholar and diplomat, Dr. Abena Busia will read her poems of exile and talk about exile and creativity at the Betsy Library on Sunday, October 7 from 2:00-4:00PM.

This event is open to the public but your RSVP is requested.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Abena P. A. Busia is a Ghanaian writer, poet, feminist, lecturer and diplomat. She is a daughter of former Ghana Head of State Kofi Abrefa Busia, and is the sister of actress Akosua Busia. Abena Busia is an associate professor of Literature in English, and of women's and gender studies at Rutgers University. She is currently Ghana's ambassador to Brazil. Dr. Busia is The FIU/Betsy Exile Writer in Residence for Fall 2018.

Professor Abena Busia, Professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, is co-director and co-editor of the groundbreaking Women Writing Africa Project, a multi-volume anthology published by the Feminist Press at CUNY. As Professor Busia points out, "history is located in multiple places." This collection is designed to recognize the cultural legacy in that assortment of voices by gathering together the original "cultural production" of African women. She is also associate editor of two of the volumes Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel (2005) and Women Writing Africa: Northern Africa (2009).

In addition to the Women Writing Africa Project, Professor Busia is also the co-editor of Theorizing Black Feminisms (1993) as well as many articles and book chapters on topics including black women's writing, black feminist criticism, and African literature. Her scholarship keeps her actively connected to her native Ghana, where a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Grant enabled Professor Busia and two Rutgers historians to lead an interdisciplinary program on "Teaching the History of the Slave Trade Routes of Ghana and Benin." She has directed a summer internship taking undergraduates to work with Women's Rights organizations in Ghana for the past seven years.

Professor Busia is also the author of two poetry collections, Testimonies of Exile (1990) and Traces of a Life (2008). She serves on a number of advisory boards and is the current board Chair of the AWDF - USA, a sister organization to the African Women's Development Fund which is the first and only pan-African funding source for women-centered programs and organizations. She teaches courses in African American and African diaspora literature, colonial discourse, and black feminism.

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