Sunday • August 9 • 7-9 PM • doors 6:30 PM • Ticketed Event
Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium • 307 Church St • wheelchair accessible
Rita Dove is an American poet and writer who was the first African American to serve as poet laureate of the United States (1993–95). A trained cellist, Dove often incorporates music themes into her poems, which are noted for their lyricism. Other themes in her work include family life, history, politics, and race. Her poetry has revisited historical events and the lives of famous figures and imagined the everyday experiences of unsung Americans.
Dove will join the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music on Aug 9 for a special closing reflection, performing original poetry honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. This will be the poem’s West Coast premiere, offering a profound coda to a season of remembering, reckoning, and imagining what comes next.
Tickets
Showing Up for Racial Justice-Santa Cruz County, CA 