Frank X Walker Reading

Last week, Blazer Library had the good fortune to host a reading by Affrilachian poet Frank X. Walker. Campus and community members alike filled Bradford's Little Theatre to revel in his words. Brothers from KSU's chapter of Phi Beta Sigma, Frank's fraternity, honored the poet with a plaque.

During the question and answer session which followed Frank's reading, an audience member asked Frank which was more important where live poetry was concerned - the content or the performance? Frank didn't hesitate for even a second in his response, answering unequivocally that the content mattered most. He suggested that the best performer could breathe life into the reading of a chicken soup can label, but that for a poet, what mattered most was that the words follow the audience home. If that is the case, I can attest to the power of Frank's gift as a writer, because his poignant words hung in the air around my husband and I for the rest of the night. We discussed them on the ride home and again later, long after tucking the kids into bed. His words stuck with us wherever we went.