Sensoria is Central Piedmont Community College's celebration of literature and the arts. Charlotte Lit is proud to partner with Sensoria for the sixth time.

Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award: Larry Sorkin, Tanja Bechtler & Robert Teixeira

April 11, Tate Hall, Central Campus
Reception 6-7 p.m. sponsored by Charlotte Lit
Award Presentation & Reading 7-8 p.m.
Book signing and CDs available following presentation

Join Charlotte Lit for a reception honoring our good friend and supporter Larry Sorkin, this year's recipient, with Tanja Bechtler and Robert Teixeira, of the Irene Blair Honeycutt Legacy Award.

For more than a decade, Sorkin, Bechtler, and Teixeira have combined their talents to merge poetry and music, inspiring audiences in difficult times. Elevating mind, body and spirit, their spoken words and music arrangements move us deeper into gratitude, transporting listeners to another realm. What emerges is the theme of healing and hope, light in darkness.
 
Larry Sorkin is a poet-in-residence at the Airy Knoll Arts Project. His poetry book Uncomfortable Minds was published in 2021. Tanja Bechtler, cellist and adjunct instructor at Central Piedmont, is Founder and Artistic Director of the Bechtler Ensemble. Robert Teixeira, member of the Ensemble, is on the faculty at Queens University and Central Piedmont Community College.

More Sensoria Events

Library Author Showcase: Writing and Publishing During Covid-19
April 11, 11:30 a.m., North Classroom Auditorium. The Central Piedmont Hagemeyer Library presents its annual Author Showcase. Panelists Mahwash Shoaib, Diana Pinckney, Howard Byrd, and Brian Anderson will discuss ways in which they used their time to write and publish while having limited access in their external communities. They will share their thoughts and best practices on writing even in seclusion.

NC Poetry Society: Gilbert-Chappell Reading
April 11, 1 p.m., Tate Hall. The Society's Gilbert-Chappell Mentor series connects selected emerging writers to distinguished poets. This year, CPCC student Melanie Diaz and Marvin Ridge High School student Isabella Kang worked alongside three-time Pushcart Prize nominee Grace Ocasio to study poetry, workshop their writing, and advance their talents. All three will read from their poetry and discuss the mentorship program experience.

Of Earth and Sky Reading 
April 11, 2 p.m., Tate Hall. In September 2021, more than forty Charlotte poets' verses were installed throughout Uptown Charlotte as part of a walking tour, showcasing powerful, varied voices and perspectives of community members. These poems, along with many other submissions, were compiled into a poetry collection to archive Charlotte's experience with Covid-19 and climate and social justice issues. Several poets will perform their published pieces.

Irene Blair Honeycutt Distinguished Lecturer: Juan Felipe Herrera 
April 14, 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m., Halton Theater. Juan Felipe Herrera was the 21st Poet Laureate of the United States (2015-2016) and the first Latino to hold the position. He is the author of thirty books, including collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young adult novels and picture books for children. “The fire that appears again and again in Herrera’s poetry exists to illuminate, to make beautiful, to purify.” —New York Times Book Review
 
Herrera’s many collections of poetry include Every Day We Get More Illegal; Notes on the Assemblage; Senegal Taxi; and Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems, recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of Crashboomlove: A Novel in Verse, which received the Americas Award. Herrera is also a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities and at-risk youth.

Paths to Publishing: Hybrid and Self-Publishing, with Kathy Izard
Thursday, April 19, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m., Studio Two (in person)

Are you fed up with query letters that receive no answer or waiting for the big book contract that never arrives? Join award-winning author Kathy Izard as she discusses everything you need to know about self-publishing and evaluating potential hybrid/partner publishers. In this workshop, Kathy will tell you about her experience with publishing three ways and answer questions on everything you need to know, from buying your own ISBN number to finding help designing your book. She can answer your questions on your specific stage of writing and how to get your words in the world, whether for Amazon, bookstores or just your family and friends. You don’t need permission from a Big Five publisher to become an author! $45 members, $55 non-members • Register

Folk Wisdom: Proverbs as Prompts for Narrative, Memoir, Poem, with Tina Barr
Saturday, April 23, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Virtual Via Zoom

In this experiential workshop we’ll look at proverbial writing in poems, and excerpts from fiction and memoir by James Dickey, Joseph Bathanti, James Wright, Flannery O’Connor and others. Selected passages represent or reflect upon proverbs—like “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” “a dog is a man’s best friend,” and “a good man is hard to find.” Participants will then develop their own drafts in the form of flash fiction, poems, memoir extracts, or story openings. $45 members, $55 non-members • Register

Little Notebooks, Big Ideas: Zines for Creative Exploration, with Bryn Chancellor & Timothy Winkler
Saturday, April 30, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Studio Two (in person)

The road to a story winds through myriad notes and drafts. Making notebooks by hand lets writers immerse themselves in the critical early creative process and helps them commit to a project. We’ll make fun, easy, affordable, and portable notebooks in the spirit of zines, closer to Anne Lamott’s index cards than to fussy bound journals. We’ll start to fill the pages with targeted prompts for characters, settings, and scenes, and play with simple printmaking and collage to make them our own. $90 members, $110 non-members • Register

Tatas Tales: A Charlotte Lit Partner Event

Tatas Tales / Los Cuentos de las Tatas: Community Playscript Readings
Wednesday, May 4, Charlotte Lit's Studio Two
In English: 5:30 p.m. Register • En Espanol 7:00 p.m. Inscribirse

Come join us for a reading of Tatas Tales / Los Cuentos de las Tatas, a new play based on the writings, drawings, talk, ideas and community of Charlotte and Concord area breast cancer survivors. Hear the developing script read by actors, and share your ideas in response. Breast cancer touches every life in some way. All are welcome. 
 
Venga y sea parte de la lectura teatral Tatas Tales / Los Cuentos de las Tatas, una  obra original basada en los escritos, dibujos, charlas e ideas provenientes de la comunidad sobreviviente de cáncer de mama del área de Charlotte y Concord. Escuche el guión en desarrollo leído por actrices y tenga la oportunidad de ofrecer sus respuestas, ideas y opiniones. De alguna manera casi todos hemos sido tocados por las vidas de las personas que han padecido de cáncer de mama. Los invitamos, todos son bienvenidos.

Charlotte Writers Club

Monthly Meetings, 6:30 p.m., Tyvola Senior Center, 2225 Tyvola Road

Other Events

NC Writers' Network

Saturday, April 23: NC Writers' Network 2022 Spring Conference. In-person classes plus several online-only courses. Presenters include Steven Sherrill, author of The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break; Meg Reid from Hub City Press; Belle Boggs, author of the acclaimed memoir The Art of Waiting; and Derek Palacio, whose debut novel The Mortifications was a New York Times Best Book of 2016. Info

Friends of Lit

Festival of Ideas by the Charlotte Center for the Humanities and Civic Imagination, at Charlotte SHOUT! April 8-10. Events include: Guerrilla Poets; The Forum, with Citizen University CEO Eric Liu; Drums4Life; Sam Chaltain on the future of learning; poet Mahogany L. Brown; and more. Info