We are pleased to welcome Pamela Sneed to discuss and celebrate her recent poetic memoir Funeral Diva! We'll be joined by local artist, writer, and historian Sydney Lawson.
About Funeral Diva:
In this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on Black Queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead. Sneed's poems not only converse with lovers past and present, but also with her literary forebears--like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde--whose aesthetic and thematic investments she renews for a contemporary American landscape.
Offering critical focus on matters from police brutality to LGBTQ+ rights, Funeral Diva confronts today's most pressing issues with acerbic wit and audacity. The collection closes with Sneed's reflections on the two pandemics of her time, AIDS and COVID-19, and the disproportionate impact of each on African American communities.
Pamela Sneed is a New York-based poet, performer, visual artist, and educator. She is the author of Funeral Diva (City Lights Books, 2020), Sweet Dreams (Belladonna*, 2018), KONG (Vintage Entity Press, 2009), Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery (Holt, 1998), and others. Sneed has performed the Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Poetry Project, The High Line, the New Museum, and the Toronto Biennale. She appears in Nikki Giovanni’s “The 100 Best African American Poems,” and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes.
Sydney Lawson is a writer, actor, and history buff native to the DMV with a love of food, theatre, art, and all things hidden. After discovering her love of history, she embarked on a journey of discovery, equity, and empowerment through food, writing, empathy, and service to others. Sydney has performed in numerous roles in plays and productions on DC stages and imbues all her work with a core of advocacy for social justice.
Funeral Diva is available at Lost City Books!