Charles Coe, poet and author of five books, will speak at the Monadnock Summer Lyceum on Sunday, Aug. 17, at the Peterborough Unitarian Universalist Church, 25 Main St. His talk, “Poetry for Political and Social Change,” will explore how American poets and writers have challenged political and social norms throughout history.
Coe, who grew up in segregated Indianapolis, will highlight the contributions of African-American writers such as Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Ralph Ellison, as well as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain, who addressed democracy and racial equality. He often works in schools, encouraging students to form their own views of the world.
He teaches at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island and Bay Path University in Massachusetts. His latest poetry collection is “All Sins Forgiven: Poems for My Parents.”
Welcome music by the Tara Greenblatt Band begins at 10:30 a.m. The lecture, introduced by moderator Steve Schuch, a Grammy-nominated composer and singer-songwriter, begins at 11 a.m. The event is free. A reception will follow. For information, go to monadnocklyceum.org.