Wrers on Wrg: Ross Gay ’96 · News · Lafayette College

Contents:

• ROSS GAY '96 RETURNS TO HELP STUNTS
• ROSS GAY ’96 EXPLOR FUNDAMENTAL CURSI OF JOY ‘THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS’
• WRERS ON WRG: ROSS GAY ’96
• ROSS GAY ’96 WS $100,000 TUFTS POETRY AWARD
• RECEPTN FOR ROSS GAY
• ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'
• ROSS GAY
• GET TO KNOW EVERYBODY READS AUTHOR ROSS GAY
• ROSS GAY
• AN INTERVIEW WH ROSS GAY
• POETRY MOMENT: ROSS GAY AND 'FOR A YOUNG EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR'

ROSS GAY '96 RETURNS TO HELP STUNTS

Five years after he graduated, Ross Gay '96 has returned to mp to share his experience and sights to art and poetry wh other stunts. Gay says he was reced as a stunt to Lafayette for his football skills and me to mp not knowg what he wanted to study. His sophomore year he took an art urse wh Ed Kerns, Eugene Clapp Profsor of Art.

“I quickly realized this was fun and good, and thgs jt blossomed om there, ” Gay says. Gay had a siar experience a poetry urse tght by Lee Upton, profsor of English and wrer--rince, and end up graduatg wh a double major English and art.

ROSS GAY ’96 EXPLOR FUNDAMENTAL CURSI OF JOY ‘THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS’

“My poetry has a narrative thst to and pends on mic, ” Gay says scribg his work.

Gay's next project is a llaboratn wh fellow alumni Tom DiGvanni '96, a mician an ensemble New York and a former football punter, and football fensive end Derek Mast '95, an animator Calif. The three will llaborate on an animated film, g Gay's poetry, DiGvanni's mic, and Mast's animatn skills.

“Derek was the reason I was backup fensive end my first years, ” says Gay lghgly.

WRERS ON WRG: ROSS GAY ’96

“I loved playg football, ” adds Gay, who played unr Coach Bill Rso and was a member of the 1994 Patrt League champnship team.

Gay eventually won the startg fensive end posn on the varsy football team and was award the 1996 Gee Wharton Pepper Prize as the senr who “most nearly reprents the Lafayette ial.

ROSS GAY ’96 WS $100,000 TUFTS POETRY AWARD

Gay hop eventually to teach at the llege level. Gay has participated poetry readgs and has exhibed his work wh artists Melv Butler and Rorick Jordan at the David A.

RECEPTN FOR ROSS GAY

Ross Gay ’96 works wh stunts his “Prcipl of Stud Art” class the Williams Visual Arts Buildg. Ross Gay disvered his love for wrg durg his sophomore year at the llege while takg an English urse. Ross Gay’s ’96 “The Book of Delights” do not only pot out the small, lightful moments he experienced life for a year, also serv as a rerd of his thoughts on race, genr and class dispari, which he evably thks about most of his life.

A crilly acclaimed wrer, Gay found his love for wrg durg his sophomore year at Lafayette while he took an English urse wh profsor David Johnson. In Johnson’s urse, Gay veloped terts wrers such as Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka. On Wednday night Gay read some of the says om “The Book of Delights, ” and was troduced by poet and English profsor Megan Fernans.

Gay is the thor of three books of poetry: “Agast Which, ” (2006), “Brgg the Shovel Down, ” (2011) and “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu” (2015), which was the wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and the 2016 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award. After graduatg Lafayette, Gay went on to get an MFA poetry om Sarah Lawrence College and a PhD Amerin Lerature om Temple Universy.

ROSS MATHEWS: GAY PEOPLE 'WANTED ME OFF TV'

As a stunt at the llege, Gay found himself beg “acutely aware” of e dispary, race, genr, jtice and power. Baraka’s poem provid Gay wh the “very plex language to this kd of rage that I was feelg, ” he said his terview wh The Lafayette. At that stage of his life, Gay “had not yet been a suatn where 18-year-old children would be drivg rs that st four tim as much as my father’s r, ” he said.

ROSS GAY

All of Gay’s feelgs of rage and new sense of awarens of his environment veloped to his qutng of ways to get toward a eper, fundamental cursy about joy, he said. When Gay was walkg up a hill Italy, he said he was such a state of reverie that he wanted to wre an say to pture that moment. Whenever was hard for Gay to fd somethg lightful that happened to him that day, there was a qutn of how to live “the midst of such btaly the moment and…that is, I thk, a reasonable qutn.

Although Gay said he end up skippg days, cuttg some says out, and not beg happy wh some of his work, he ma an important project to pture every lightful moment for a full year, even when was hard to fd those moments. Some of the thgs that lighted Gay durg the time of wrg was beg lled “baby” or “honey” by a wars, the smell of flowers, ltle exchang of love and re-takg gtur, mistakg a stranger for his uncle, helpg out people and fond memori, to name a few. After lookg and fdg thgs that lighted him, Gay said he felt himself noticg those ltle moments of joy more often.

GET TO KNOW EVERYBODY READS AUTHOR ROSS GAY

For people to wns moments of tenrns such as holdg the door for someone or helpg a stranger rry their thgs, allows for those actns to bee a norm our society, Gay said, addg that people are already cled to want to pot out the good thgs that happen and share those feelgs of light.

ROSS GAY

When difference of others be a norm, impos a kd of brokenns, Gay said.

Although Gay’s wrg has been so vast, he said he is “still fdg” his poetic voice.

Gay is schled to give an addnal readg and Q&A ssn at 11 a. Lleg and universi, heteronormativy, homophobia, and transphobia belong to school history as cisively as aterni, football, and fal exams. In 1992, the popular Prceton Review named Lafayette the most "homophobic" stutn of higher tn the U.

AN INTERVIEW WH ROSS GAY

And (unsurprisgly) the school wh most "gays still the closet. In velopg a groundbreakg, publicly available mol for reverg LGBTQ+ history and engagg wh related issu, the Queer Archiv Project monstrat that stutns n do more than simply acknowledge homophobic, transphobic pasts.

Wner of the 2015 Natnal Book Crics Circle Award and falist for the Natnal Book Award Poetry, Ross Gay ’96 spent several days on mp to vis var class, liver a keynote addrs, read om his llectns of poetry and says, and discs wrg and creativy a few qutn-and-answer ssns. Ross Gay ’96 has won the Claremont Graduate Universy’s $100, 000 Kgsley Tufts Poetry Award for his book, Catalog of Unabashed Gratu.

POETRY MOMENT: ROSS GAY AND 'FOR A YOUNG EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR'

Gay will receive his award at a ceremony on April 7 at Claremont. “Catalog of Unabashed Gratu” by Ross Gay ’96.