April 20, 2011 – International Jazz Day: declared by UNESCO, at the suggestion of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Herbie Hancock, who chaired the first event in 2012, co-sponsored by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

Yusef Komunyakaa (1947 – ) is a African American poet who was born as James William Brown, in Bogalusa Louisiana, the eldest of five children. He served one tour of duty in South Vietnam during the war, and worked for the military paper Southern Cross, leaving the service in 1966. He earned an M.A. in writing from Colorado State University in 1978, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California, Irvine, in 1980. He was awarded the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Neon Vernacular. Komunyakaa is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at New York University.

To read Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Blue Dementia” click: