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In this virtual event that honors International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Deborah Plutzik Briggs, The Betsy’s VP for Arts and Community Engagement serves as program curator and host in partnership with several organizations affiliated with Florida International University including the Jewish Museum of Florida, Department of Religious Studies, Hillel, and Miami Beach Urban Studios.

William Heyen is Professor of English/Poet in Residence Emeritus at the College at Brockport and has won NEA, Guggenheim, American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters, Pushcart, and many other fellowships and awards. Heyen’s masterpiece Shoah Train (Etruscan Press)  was a Finalist for the National Book Award; and he has received wide acclaim for The Candle: Poems of Our 20th-Century Holocausts.

Joy Ladin is the author of nine poetry collections and she holds the David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Yeshiva University. A nationally recognized speaker on gender and Jewish identity, Ladin is a sought after speaker/activist, and has been featured on several NPR programs, including "On Being with Krista Tippett." She will be reading The Book of Anna, which comes out in March 2021. Joy is a 2 time alum of The Betsy Writer's Room.

Geoffrey Philp is a Jamaican Poet who lives in Miami, and is the author of six poetry collections. Discovering that his maternal grandmother was Jewish, he has been working with the new Voices Project, which focuses on the moral lessons of the Holocaust; his poem “Flying African,” has become part of their PSA for a forthcoming book, New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust.  Philp will premiere a new set of poems for this reading.  Geoffrey is a 2 time alum of The Betsy Writers Room.

This program is presented in partnership with The Betsy - South Beach.

We Bear Witness: Poetry and the Holocaust from The Betsy-South Beach on Vimeo.