Three and a half stars
Etheridge Knight Festival of the Arts; IUPUI Student Center; April 5

Joseph Bruchac warmly shared his memories of Etheridge Knight with a small, appreciative audience in a most inhospitable setting. Shut out from the originally scheduled site in the Lilly Auditorium in the IUPUI University Library, the program sponsors did the next best thing: assembled in the only building open on campus on a Saturday evening. That meant dealing with noisy groups also utilizing the newly opened Student Center, which reminds this reviewer of being in the belly of a submarine. Undaunted by the inconvenience, Bruchac, an incomparable storyteller and singular poet of society’s complexity, took us into the artistry of Knight and why Knight’s poetry is of continuing consequence. Choosing poetry and stories from his own vast published works, Bruchac shared his worldview of genuine caring about each other and the world in which we strive. www.EKFestival.org.