Ashuntantang to Participate in International Poetry Festival in Colombia

Joyce Ashuntantang

Joyce Ashuntantang, assistant professor of English at Hillyer College, is among 70 poets from 40 countries invited to take part in the 22nd International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Colombia.

This prestigious festival will take place from June 23-30, 2012, in 150 venues in the city of Medellin and 10 cities throughout Colombia. There will be 150 poetry readings and 35 educational activities, including workshops and panel discussions.

This year, the festival will pay tribute to "The Spirit of the Aboriginal Peoples," as a way to reclaim their memory and culture through poetic expression. The 22nd International Poetry Festival of Medellin will serve as a forum for poets from diverse cultures to express their perception of the world, their cosmology, their complaints and suggestions for a more humane world.

Ashuntantang will be performing 20 poems from her forthcoming poetry collection, Wings of Words. These poems have been translated into Spanish, but Ashuntantang will be performing them in English alongside a Spanish translator. She also will participate in poetry workshops and discussion panels.

Ashuntantang is the recipient of the University of Hartford's 2012 Belle K. Ribicoff Junior Faculty Prize, which was presented during Commencement exercises in May.