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Dinner, Conversation and Poetry Reading with Haitian Poet Bertony Louis

“On Haiti, Exile, Belonging and Humanity”

Dinner catered by Haitian Sensation will be served

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Join CAS in welcoming Artists and Scholars at Risk (ASAR) fellow and City of Asylum writer-in-residence Bertony Louis to our community. Louis’ poetry – including new poems written since his arrival in Pittsburgh – will be presented by himself and actor Ausar Stewart, assistant professor of voice and acting in the School of Drama. The reading will be followed by a conversation with Louis, moderated by Prof. Mame Fatou-Niang, and will include a delicious meal catered by Haitian Sensation. You’ll be invited to participate in a discussion with Louis about art, poetry, writing, and displacement.

Louis is a Haitian poet whose work bridges cultures, languages, and continents. He is the author of “Recovering the Horizons” (L’Appeau Strophe, 2022) and the widely anthologized poems “Cradle of My Vitality” and “Smile Gone Up in Smoke” (Harvard Review, 2025). Winner of 13 international poetry awards — including the Castello di Duino Poesia Special Jury Prize and the École de la Loire First Prize — his poetry has been recognized across Europe, North America, and the Caribbean.

The recipient of prestigious fellowships and residencies in Germany, Hungary, Spain and the United States, Louis joins CMU from his most recent fellowship at Harvard University. He has taught literature and French for over a decade in Haiti, where he also served as a pedagogical coordinator. He has facilitated workshops, including a poetry writing seminar at the University of Glasgow, and has been featured in podcasts with the Scottish Poetry Library and UNESCO’s RILA program. Louis is currently a Visiting Research Professor in the CMU Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics.

Sponsors: CAS, LCAL, The Humanities Scholars Program, ASAR, The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, and the Center for Black European Studies and the Atlantic (CBESA).