We are happy to have as our guest, for this Zoom event via San José State University (SJSU), Vernon (a.k.a. Trey) Keeve III, PhD, poet, author, and educator. Dr. Keeve III will read and then deconstruct for us a few excerpts from his award-winning book, Southern Migrant Mixtape.

The beloved California Poet Laureate Emeritus, Al Young (1939-2021), said of Keeve’s unflinching work, “Vividly, from a post-American century, Vernon Keeve III–a post-millennial, book-loving African American–shares, reflects and reports on life lived at global split-levels. Southern Virginia-born, gay, comfortably reared, poet-storyteller Keeve takes unblinking looks at how the damage and ravages of so-called white privilege split and splintered the world. Upbringing, family, education, world-outlook, environment, spirituality–all of it trembles here on edge.”

This event is on Thursday, November 21, 2024, 5:00-7:00PM PST, on Zoom. For our give-away, the first 10 folks to participate in our online Q&A will be gifted a copy of Southern Migrant Mixtape.

Register by clicking here.

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Bio for Vernon (Trey) Keeve III, PhD:
Dr. Keeve III is a lifelong learner and curator of learning spaces. He was recently a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University, researching Black and indigenous literacies, pedagogies, and the intersections of the Prison Industrial Complex or PIC abolition and education. He is the author of Southern Migrant Mixtape which received the PEN Oakland, Josephine Miles Award in 2019.

Dr. Keeve III says his writing was and still is influenced by grief, informed by the passing of his father in 2020. When it comes to writing, he said, “I imagined grief would only show up in my poetry; but, it also showed up in my doctoral research and writing.” So, Dr. Keeve III will share a mixtape–and in it there will be a deconstruction of grief–an exploration of the things that emerge when you’re Black and grieving.

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