MONROVIA, Montserrado – Celebrated Liberian Poet Patricia Jabbeh Wesley will welcome her second reading audience to kick start Liberia’s Independence Day festivities.

The reading will take place at the Peace Cafe, located at 17^th Street & Tubman Boulevard, on July 21^st at 6:00 p.m.

Liberia gained independence on July 26, 1847, and is Africa’s oldest republic and second oldest nation after Ethiopia.

Wesley, an Associate Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University-Altoona, is currently in her native Liberia on a research trip. She hosted her first reading audience at her alma mater, the University of Liberia, a week ago. An award-winning poet, Wesley is also a motivational speaker.

The author of several poetry books, she wrote “Where the Road Turns” in 2010, and “The River Is Rising” in 2007, for which won a Crab Orchard Series in Poetry award.

Since Bai T. Moore and Doris Banks Henries, few Liberian poets have brought much international acclaim to Liberian poetry. Wesley’s poems “have also been featured in former US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s syndicated newspaper column, “American Life in Poetry,” according to the Poetry Foundation, America’s premier poetry site.

Wesley also recently published a children’s book, “In Monrovia the River Visits the Sea,” which was published by the Liberian-owned publisher, One Moore Book.

A previous version of this article erroneously designated Jefferson Krua as the author. Additionally, the article initially incorrectly stated that Wesley was on a sabbatical; she’s on a research trip. 

Featured photo courtesy of Teresa Grau Ros