Aurora Harris (Detroit Portrait series)
Artist
Kurt Novak
(American)
Date2003 - 2005
MediumArchival pigment print on cotton rag paper
DimensionsPaper Size: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Frame Size: 26 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. (67.3 × 57.2 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Object numberUAC6117
DescriptionAward-winning Michigan poet and educator Aurora Harris received her BA in Sociology in 2001 from Wayne State University and her MA in Social Foundations of Education and Cultural Studies from Eastern Michigan University in 2009. In addition to her educational and poetic career, Harris is a Detroit-based activist, bringing together her chosen media of poetry and spoken word performance to bring attention to political and cultural issues, such as the state of Detroit and of women within a global society. Harris has described her poetry as “snapshots of society and human condition” that she hopes will facilitate positive change within her community as well as on a global scale. Harris has been honored with a multitude of awards, including the 2014 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award in Peace Studies and the 2015 Unsung Hero Award from the National Lawyers Guild (Michigan Chapter). Harris published her own book of poems in 2011, Solitude of Five Black Moons, which received the PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature. Currently, Harris works as a lecturer at the University of Michigan–Dearborn teaching African American Literature and English Composition.Collections
