Join us on Tuesday, February 10 for a reading by Robin Coste Lewis, the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Los Angeles, followed by a thought-provoking conversation with host Alexandra Grant.
Thorne Hall, Occidental College
Oxy Live! is Occidental’s flagship event series showcasing a diverse lineup of cultural luminaries. The 2025-26 season is hosted by celebrated artist and cultural collaborator Alexandra Grant. Register for your free ticket.
Award-winning poet Robin Coste Lewis joins Grant for a reading and thought-provoking conversation on Tuesday, February 10 in Thorne Hall. Please join us after the conversation for a book signing hosted by Octavia’s Bookshelf, Pasadena’s beloved independent bookstore. Copies of Robin Coste Lewis’ books will be available for purchase, and attendees will have the opportunity to have their books personally signed by the author.
Curated by OXY ARTS, the College’s community-based arts hub, this event is funded through the generous support of Occidental trustee and alumna, Lisa Coscino ’85 and the Occidental Class of ’74.
Robin Coste Lewis’s debut poetry collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus (Knopf) won the National Book Award in poetry––the first time a poetry debut by an African-American had ever won the prize in the National Book Foundation's history, and the first time any debut had won the award since 1974. The collection was also a finalist for LA Times Book Prize, the Hurston-Wright Award, and the California Book Award. The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Buzz Feed, and Entropy Magazine all named Voyage one of the best poetry collections of the year; Flavorwire named the collection one of the 10 must-read books about art.
Lewis’s writing has appeared in various journals and anthologies, such as Time Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, Transition, and Best American Poetry. In 2018, MoMA commissioned both Lewis and Kevin Young to write a series of poems to accompany Robert Rauschenberg’s drawings in Thirty-Four Illustrations of Dante’s Inferno (MoMA, 2018). Knopf published Lewis’s second collection To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness in 2022. Lewis’s latest collection is Archive of Desire.
A former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Lewis’ laureateship focused on truth and reconciliation projects dealing with the city’s history.
In addition to writing essays and poetry, Lewis creates text/art installations and regularly collaborates/contributes on projects with visual artists and filmmakers. Lewis has taught on the faculty of Wheaton College, Hunter College, and Hampshire College. Currently, she teaches in NYU's low-residency MFA in Paris, and is a writer-in-residence at USC.
Born in Compton, California, her family is from New Orleans.
