GA(S)P: BREATH, COMMUNITY, AND POETRY A reading of “The Redemption of Al Bumen (A Morality Play)” M. NourbeSe Philip is an unembedded poet, essayist, novelist, playwright and former lawyer who lives in the space-time of the City of Toronto. She is a Fellow of the Guggenheim, and Rockefeller (Bellagio) Foundations and the MacDowell Colony. She is the recipient of many awards including the Casa de las Americas prize (Cuba). Among her best known published works are: She Tries Her Tongue; Her Silence Softly Breaks, Looking for Livingstone: AnOdyssey of Silence, and Harriet’s Daughter, a young adult novel. Philip’s most recent work is Zong!, a genre-breaking poem, which engages with ideas of the law, history and memory as they relate to the transatlantic slave trade. Recorded December 2, 2016 at Higgins Hall Auditorium as part of the Leslie Scalipino Lecture Series. The Leslie Scalipino Lecture in Innovative Poetics is an annual lecture series hosted by Pratt Institute with a focus on the critical analysis of innovative poetry, essays, plays and cross-genre work primarily by women poets. The sense invites contemporary writers to present their work int he spirit exemplified by the Scalipino’s own critical writing and editorial vision as publisher of O Books.