Event Calendar

Poet Laureate Jennifer Bartell Boykin will host a presentation of her book Traveling Mercy at Florence County Library on Monday, April 1, 2024, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
This event is being held in honor of National Poetry Month. Bartell Boykin’s debut book of poetry navigates the journeys of a Black woman from rural South Carolina. The woman’s travels transcend time as she encounters history, nature, and grief and the book is a love story to survival. National Book Award winning poet Nikky Finney says, “Bartell’s Traveling Mercy is such an intimate history of a Black girl raised by Black women, raised by church fans and magnolia memories, dream-hymns of Black people pushing through mud and disease and held together by traditions.”
Bartell Boykin earned her Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the University of South Carolina, and works as a high school English teacher. Her second collection of poems Only Believe, is the winner of the 2023 Hilary Tham Capital Collection and will be released later in 2024.
No registration is required. The event is free and open to the public. It will be held in the Stukes Meeting room at the Florence County Library, 509 S. Dargan Street in Florence. Call 843-413-7074 or visit www.florencelibrary.org for more information.