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Shara McCallum — BEHOLD - with Chet'la Sebree — at Union Market
Past event
About This Event
Born of the poet's longstanding love of visual art, especially painting, Behold examines why we love what we love, and how we see (and are seen) by art. When we say we "saw" something, McCallum asks, what is it that we saw--outside of us, and within?Over two years spent working on this book, McCallum traveled to museums in the U.S. and abroad with the explicit goal of standing before works of art created by contemporary Caribbean, Black, and women artists. The resulting collection works to untangle what it means to locate oneself within the frame--to imagine belonging by entering the scene.Behold begins as a dialogue, a call and response traversing the territory McCallum is known for: history, interiority, identity, and the ways bodies present themselves in the world. These poems explore fulfillment and connection, the labor of seeking, the ache of loss, and the histories carried within the self. They are meditations on the existence of place within us, the way it is seeded within, and seeds us.From Jamaica and born to a Jamaican father and Venezuelan mother, Shara McCallum is the author of seven books of poetry, published in the US & UK, including Behold, forthcoming in 2026. Awards for her work include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Musgrave Medal, NEA Fellowship, Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for No Ruined Stone, OCM Bocas Caribbean Poetry Prize for Madwoman, Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for The Water Between Us, among others. McCallum teaches at Penn State University and served as the Penn State Laureate from 2021-2022.McCallum will be in conversation with Chet'la Sebree, the author of the debut essay collection Turn (W)here: A Geography of Home, forthcoming from The Dial Press on May 5, 2026. She is also the author of three poetry collections: Blue Opening (Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, Lambda Literary Bisexual Poetry Award finalist, and longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection); Field Study (winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets); and Mistress (New Issues Poetry Prize Winner and NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-Poetry finalist). She is an assistant professor of English at the George Washington University and teaches in Randolph College’s Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program.This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.
About the Venue
Politics & Prose · Politics and Prose at Union Market
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