Poet Terrance Hayes reads at Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in celebration of Black History Month

The light beamed down on Terrance Hayes on Saturday afternoon as he stood center stage in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s lecture hall.

The award-winning poet and South Carolina native read several poems from his selections “So to Speak,” “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin” and others, as part of their Black History Month celebration. Hayes received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997. He taught at Carnegie Mellon University for more than a decade and later at Pitt.

He read through more than eight poems, from “American Sonnet For The New Year” to “Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait.”

Hayes’ distinctive cadence moved with a pace of confidence, joy and humor. He talked between his poems, finding a rapport with the audience.

“Don’t clap after every poem,” he said with a laugh, which the audience joined in on.

He was a poet on the stage, but also seemed like the friend that you could laugh and discuss the ugly things with and still find a reason to smile.

“Today’s event was amazing,” said Lemona Wrencher-Strong, of Knoxville, who used to participate in writers’ workshops with Hayes. “He can put things into perspective that a lot of people may not want to talk about in a loving and studious manner, so it was great.”

Ada Eke, 22, said the event was a sweet full-circle moment.

Her introduction to Hayes was through a copy of “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin.”

Now that she has graduated and is figuring out the sort of writer she wishes to be, “this is a book feels like home to me,” she said while holding a copy for Hayes to sign.

Eke graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and had read the book several times. Hearing Hayes read his selections, where he paused and used inflections, made the poems feel new, she said.

“I absolutely adored it, the way his work centers the Black experience without tokenizing it, and celebrates the diversity and how much research he does, and his dedication to being accurate to so many people’s stories and not just his own, is amazing,” Eke said.

The key to his writing is practice, Hayes said.

“I tell my students, you know, write things for Mother’s Day for your mom, before you become famous, and it’s the same kind of idea knowing that someone was going to look at it,” Hayes said.

“Everybody can do that and it is just a good regular practice to try and get things into poems. Creativity is healthy. It keeps you from getting old. The emotional intelligence that I talk about, it comes from art.”

Tyleta Howell of South Side Slopes heard about the event through an email. Typically, Howell’s interests have been in female poets.

“I was intrigued, and I’m so incredibly glad that I came,” she said. “It has opened me up to his work. I loved his use of words and imagery. I’m incredibly impressed.”

Hayes said he prefers 3D conversations, which is what the question-and-answer period allows for after the reading.

“It allows me to see around people,” he said.

Jarrett Krause, 30, of Regent Square said the event felt very cathartic.

“I have been a fan of Terrance’s poetry since I was in college. I was studying at Pitt, and on the curriculum was ‘Lighthead.’ I was curious about the form of poetry. I was initially taking an additional credit but reading the book opened my mind.”

Since that introduction, Krause has become a poetry teacher. He teaches literature at Winchester Thurston School, a private school in the Shadyside section of Pittsburgh.

Krause said “Lighthead” was evocative and rich.

“When he came to speak to the class when I was a student, I was really struck by the collection,” he said. “Since then, I’ve been keeping up with Terrance’s work.”

Hayes said Black History Month did not inform the poems he read Saturday.

”I am Black all the time,” he said. “The adjective of Black is always there. … I’m always in history so I am mostly just trying to be present with people.

“Whatever it is outside of the room, I’m just trying to make everyone present in this room.”