lunch/workshop @ noon, dinner/talk @ 5:30

How do we catalogue history when competing accounts tell radically different stories? 116 years ago, Jack Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion in the world. In the century since, newspapers, films, and songs have presented him as both superhero and villain. Award-winning poet Adrian Matejka will explore Jack Johnson’s complex legacy across two poetic and visual narrative projects. 

Adrian Matejka is the author of seven books, including a mixed media collection inspired by Funkadelic, Standing on the Verge & Maggot Brain (Third Man Books, 2021) and a collection of poems, Somebody Else Sold the World (Penguin, 2021), which was a finalist for the 2022 UNT Rilke Prize and the Indiana Authors’ Award. His first graphic novel, Last On His Feet, was published by Liveright in 2023. He served as Poet Laureate of the state of Indiana in 2018-19 and is Editor of Poetry magazine. He lives in Chicago.