Remarkable Artist Series: An Evening with California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia

The Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission presents, “Remarkable Artists”, a series of intimate conversations with local, national and internationally distinguished artists from June - September, 2016. The first artist in the series, California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, is presented in partnership with the Sacramento Poetry Center.  

California’s Poet Laureate Dana Gioia will read and recite his poetry, and talk about his life and work bringing poetry to people all over the USA. Mr. Gioia will be joined by the winner of California’s Poetry Out Loud competition for 2016, Mr. Chigozie Maduchukwu, who will recite a few pieces from his repertoire. 

Mr. Gioia’s newest book, 99 Poems, New and Selected, will be available for sale after the reading.

The goal of the Remarkable Artists series is to enrich the cultural and educational life of the Sacramento region through the exploration of a diverse array of provocative cultural, artistic, and educational perspectives represented by artists in a variety of disciplines. Supported in part by a generous grant from the California Arts Council, a state agency and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, all events are free and open to the public but reservations are required.  

Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia is a native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent. He received a BA and an MBA from Stanford University and an MA in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Gioia currently serves as the Poet Laureate of California. Gioia has published five full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia’s 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture. As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. 

Chigozie Maduchukwu is currently a junior at Pleasant Grove High School, and he recently won the Poetry Out Loud competition, first for Sacramento County, and then for the entire State of California, which qualifies him for the national competition in Washington DC in May of 2016.