Happy New Year! I can’t believe it’s been more than a week since I last posted…but I’m back from my holiday break and I have a backlog of drawings to upload. I’m starting with this portrait of one of my favorite people, the poet Myronn Hardy. I first met Myronn when he was an undergrad and I was a grad student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. We were both in the English department and we shared an affinity for art and the poet Lucille Clifton. By the time we had really begun getting to know each other, I was preparting to leave Ann Arbor for my first academic job, at the University of Oregon. Despite that, our friendship continued to grow over the coming years. We would often chat into the wee hours, which is more than a notion, considering that 3am for me (in Oregon), was 6am for him (on the East Coast). We kept in touch all the way through his MFA at Columbia University, and beyond. Now he is a professor at Al-Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco. He’s been then for three years, and so we don’t get to chat as much. Myronn is still very close to my heart, though, and he’s still one of the greatest poets I know. Check out his website to learn more about him and his work: Myronn Hardy :: Author

Posted by Ajuan Mance

PS: The background image is of a map of Ifrane, a resort and university town in northeastern Morocco.