Spectral Evidence: A Special Book Launch and Talk with Gregory Pardlo

Please come and celebrate the launch of Gregory Pardlo's latest poetry collection, Spectral Evidence. Greg will be in conversation with MacArthur Fellow and national book award winner Imani Perry at the New York Public Library Main Branch (42nd St. & 5th Ave).

The conversation will be followed by a book signing. The event will be live-streamed.

Spectral Evidence is Gregory Pardlo’s first major collection of poetry after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Digest. This new collection moves among considerations of the professional wrestler Owen Hart; Tituba, the only Black woman to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials; MOVE, the militant separatist group famous for its violent stand-offs with the Philadelphia Police Department; and other historical topics. Pardlo compels us to consider how we think about devotion, beauty, art, justice, the criminalization and death of Black bodies, and how these have been inscribed into our present, our history, and the Western canon.

Gregory Pardlo worked on Spectral Evidence during his 2020-2021 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. He will discuss the book with professor Imani Perry.

To join this event in-person | Please be sure to register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form shortly before the program.

To join the livestream | A livestream of this event will be available on the NYPL event page. To receive an email reminder shortly in advance of the event, please be sure to register the NYPL event page.