Phillis Wheatley's Poems at 250 --- talk and exhibition launch

Join award-winning playwright Adeola Solanke for an introduction to Phillis Wheatley, one of the first published Black creative writers in English.
2023 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Phillis Wheatley's book Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. These poems by a prodigiously talented writer, barely out of her teens, are also the first book of imaginative literature in English to be published by a person of African heritage. It is a landmark in English and African American literature.
To celebrate the anniversary of Wheatley's book, the University of St Andrews has mounted a display of the copy of the book it has held in its Library since 1773. Adeola Solanke has written a play, Phillis in London, reimagining Wheatley's time in the capital as her book was being printed. Adeola's talk will offer insights into Wheatley's imaginative life and her experience as a Black woman in Georgian London.
We hope you will join us in celebrating Wheatley's epoch-making book.
An online exhibit to complement the physical display can be accessed at www.exhibit.so/exhibits/A9v7lFvtD3hct3WbK8cf.