Join us for an event celebrating the searing new poetry collection from the Forward Prize-winning American poet with a devoted online and international following.
Bluff is a new collection about the year that the world’s gaze turned to Minneapolis – Smith’s own home.
Written after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicentre of protest following the murder of George Floyd, Bluff is Danez Smith’s powerful reckoning with their role and responsibility as a poet and with their hometown.
This is a book of awakening out of violence, guilt, shame and critical pessimism to imagine how we can strive towards a new existence in a world that seems to be dissolving into desolate futures.
Smith brings a startling urgency to these poems, their questions demanding a new language, a deep self-scrutiny and virtuosic textual shapes. A series of ars poetica gives way to ‘anti poetica’ and ‘ars america’ to implicate poetry’s collusions with unchecked capitalism.
A brilliant long poem maps the history of Minneapolis-Saint Paul’s vibrant Rondo neighbourhood before and after officials decided to run an interstate directly through it.
Bluff is a manifesto about artistic resilience when the places we most love – those given and made – are burning. In this collection, Smith turns to honesty, hope, rage and imagination to envision futures that seem possible.
More Lambeth Listings MORE
The Story
A gripping newsroom drama by Tracey Scott Wilson, The Story makes its UK premiere at the National Theatre,…
The Black History Culture Tour Bus
The Black History Culture Tour Bus invites visitors to discover the people, neighbourhoods and stories that have shaped…
Black Zine Fair
Discover a new generation of Black independent creators at Brixton Library’s Black Zine Fair, celebrating the continuing tradition…
The Brixton Experience: Black History Month
Discover Brixton from within through its Black history, culture and the lived experiences of the people who shaped…
Gospel Orchestrated
Celebrate Black History Month with an uplifting evening of gospel music, massed voices, rhythm and the magnificent sound…
FREE Ghanaian Drumming Workshops
Discover authentic Ghanaian rhythms with expert drummer Abass Dodoo and the One-Drum team at these free, interactive workshops…
Black British Ballet Dance Workshop
Join Royal Ballet School graduate Darren Panton for a dance workshop combining ballet with contemporary, African and Caribbean…
Pioneers of Black British Ballet — In Conversation with Darren Panton
Discover the lives and achievements of Black British ballet pioneers in an evening of conversation with dancer and…