The Language Arts Live series of literary readings at Bates College presents poet Aracelis Girmay reading from her works.

Girmay is an inheritor of Eritrean, Puerto Rican and African American traditions. Her debut poetry collection, "Teeth," was published by the Curbstone Press in 2007. Her second, "Kingdom Animalia," will be released by BOA Editions this year and has received the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, given to a poet with a new book of exceptional merit. She is assistant professor of poetry at Hampshire College, and is on the faculty of Drew University's low-residency M.F.A. program in poetry.

Language Arts Live is sponsored by the English department, the programs in African American and American cultural studies, the Office of Intercultural Education, the Learning Associates Program, the Humanities Fund, the Brandow Family Fund for the Arts and the John Tagliabue Fund.