GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP -In celebration of Juneteenth, Murphy Writing of Stockton University will host a virtual reading 7 p.m. Friday, June 19 via Zoom featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa.

Komunyakaa is the first African American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. His books include, “Neon Vernacular,” for which he received the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, “Taboo,” “Warhorses,” “The Emperor of Water Clocks” and many others.

His plays, performance art and libretti have been performed nationally and include Wakonda’s Dream, Saturnalia, Testimony and Gilgamesh: a verse play. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Komunyakaa currently teaches at New York University.

Reservations via Murphy Writing of Stockton University on Facebook are encouraged. For more information, visit stockton.edu/murphywriting or call 609-626-3594.


Nanette LoBiondo Galloway

Award winning journalist covering news, events and people of Atlantic County for more than 20 years.