Poet Sesshu Foster giving lecture at CSUDH

CARSON - Poet and novelist Sesshu Foster will share some of his work through a poetry reading and discussion at Cal State Dominguez Hills on April 14 at 7 p.m.Foster's appearance is part of the university's celebration of National Poetry Month in April. For his work, Foster draws on his experience growing up in East Los Angeles and its ethnic evolution, as well as the influence of his parent's experiences: his mother was detained in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II, and his father became engaged in post-war counter-culture philosophies. "By and large, East L.A. has an untold history and unrecognized stories," Foster, who is Japanese-American, said. "In a city where movies and entertainment play a major role in the imagination of its citizens, a great deal of daily life goes ignored. A lot of my work deals with that." During the lecture, Foster will be reading from and discussing his books, "World Ball Notebook" and "Atomik Aztex." Copies of his books will be available for purchase before and after the lecture. Foster has taught composition and literature in East L.A. schools and universities for 20 years, and has taught at the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop, where he received his MFA, and at the California Institute for the Arts. He is currently a visiting assistant professor of creative writing at UC Santa Cruz. His work has been published in "The Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry," "Language for a New Century: Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond" and "State of the Union: 50 Political Poems." Admission to Foster's lecture is free; on-campus parking is $4 daily. For more information about the lecture, e-mail rhernandez@csudh.edu or call (310) 243-3322.

********** Published: April 7, 2011 - Volume 9 - Issue 51