NYBALF returns to Harlem, September 18–20. Free Festival Registration is open →
Patricia Smith
Poet • Author
Patricia Smith is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2025 National Book Award and the NAACP Image Award, and finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize; Unshuttered; Incendiary Art, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award, the LA Times Book Prize, the NAACP Image Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Blood Dazzler, a National Book Award finalist. Her work has been published widely, including in Best American Poetry and Best American Essays; her short story “When They Are Done With Us” won the Robert Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was featured in Best American Mystery Stories. She is a professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a former distinguished professor for the City University of New York. Currently, she is at work on a memoir and novel.
Events featuring
this guest
Friday Sept. 18 2026 • 8:00 PM | Harlem Stage Gatehouse
Let the Poets Govern: Opening Reception, Invocation, and Performance
Camonghne Felix · Titilope Sonuga · Yaissa Jimenez · Patricia Smith · Jasmine Mans · Yacouba Sissoko
The festival formally opens through poetry, music, voice, and public imagination. Taking its title from Camonghne Felix’s book, Let the Poets Govern sets the tone for the weekend through invocation and performance.