Nikky Finney’s new work, The Battle Of and For the Black Face Boy, delves deep into our heritage and addresses what isn’t being said about race today. Join Finney and four DC-based poets as they share their work focusing on issues black males face in today’s far-from-post-racial society.

The reading is being presented as part of At War With Ourselves, a project of The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland. In September of 2015, The Clarice, in partnership with Baltimore’s Center Stage, will present At War With Ourselves, which is a one-hour, contemporary musical oratorio commissioned for Kronos Quartet and a choir of more than 150 voices under the direction of Stanley Thurston. The original score by jazz composer Terence Blanchard, with poem/libretto, and spoken word by Nikky Finney, is a reflection of America’s history and struggle measured through the dual anniversaries of our country’s Civil Rights movement and the sesquicentennial observances of the end of the American Civil War.