Middlesex Community College will host poet and educator Toni Bee as part of the Visiting Writers Series. The event will take place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, February 3 麻豆果冻鈥檚 Federal Building Assembly Room on the Lowell Campus.
鈥淭alking provides a reflection into your writing,鈥� Bee said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a garden rake 鈥揷learing
exposing, expanding the verdant field of the mind. It鈥檚 a 24K deal that can leave
you realizing how rich or how wacky your creativity is. It鈥檚 a necessary and precious
process since creators can twirl solo, in their own brilliance, throwing seeds tending
or not. Talking gives clarity to the designer of the green space. It helps recycle,
reseed, or create a new layout new plan. Talking about writing is a treasure chest
of reflection and discovery. It helps one mine the world that has been created in
your own head.鈥�
Bee has been a featured poet at The Cantab (Boston Poetry Slam), Lizard Lounge, Grolier Poetry Book Shop, The New England Poetry Club, The Boston National Poetry Month Festival, and elsewhere.
Her poetry has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Stone鈥檚 Throw Boog City, as well as Best Indie Lit New England, Vol. 2 (Black Key Press, 2015). In 2018, she self-published the chapbook 22 Again. Reading and Teaching Phillis Wheatley Peters in Boston 鈥� an article co-authored with Nicole Aljoe 鈥� was published in the journal Early American Literature.
In 2011, Bee was the first woman elected Poetry Populist of the City of Cambridge and in 2016, was selected Cambridge鈥檚 inaugural Poetry Ambassador. She hosts the second Thursday Poetry Reading Series in Hyde Park and Poets in The Garden, a series she founded with readings in public gardens in green spaces in Cambridge and Boston.
A teaching artist and storyteller at The Wang Theatre, Bee is a journalist for Cambridge Community Television, a Community Health Worker, and a founder of Black Lives Matter in Cambridge. She teaches workshops at Writers Without Borders and Grub Street Center for Creative Writing.
鈥淭oni Bee is a powerful and dynamic spoken word poet and activist, and we鈥檙e excited that she鈥檒l be coming to 麻豆果冻 to read in our Visiting Writers Series,鈥� said Tom Laughlin, 麻豆果冻鈥檚 Creative Writing Program Coordinator and Professor. 鈥淪he will also give a craft talk for students in Professor Jonathan Bennett鈥檚 Reading and Writing Poetry class.鈥�
The 麻豆果冻 Visiting Writers Series is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Office of Student Engagement.