The University of Wolverhampton is hosting a free live performance by internationally renowned poet, Jessica Care Moore, as part of Black History Month.

Jessica, who lives in Detroit, will read from her poetry collection, We Want Our Bodies Back, followed by a Question and Answer session.

Over the past two decades, Jessica Care Moore has become a cultural force as a poet, performer, publisher, activist and critic. She is the 2019 and 2017 Knight Arts Award Winner, 2016 Kresge Arts Fellow,  NAACP Great Expectations Awardee and an Alain Locke Award recipient from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Moore is the author of The Words Don’t Fit in My Mouth, The Alphabet Verses the Ghetto, Sunlight Through Bullet Holes, and the critically acclaimed Techno Choreopoem, Salt City. Her work has been published in numerous literary collections and she has performed on stages all over the world, including The Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the London Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Claire Buckerfield, Public Engagement Co-ordinator for Artsfest in the Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Science, said: “Jessica was due to fly over to appear at this year’s Artsfest celebrations in the Black Country but the visit was cancelled due to the pandemic. We’re absolutely thrilled that she has agreed to take part in our virtual celebrations of Black History Month.

“Her poetry collection is filled with moving, original stanzas that speak to both Black women’s creative and intellectual power, and express the pain, sadness and anger of those who suffer constant scrutiny because of their gender and race.

“Jessica argues that Black women spend their lives building a physical and emotional shelter to protect themselves from misogyny, criminalisation, hatred, stereotypes, sexual assault, objectification, patriarchy and death threats. We Want Our Bodies Back is an exploration, and defiant stance against these many attacks.”