By: Kyla Burwick, contributing writer
Nikky Finney, born in Conway, S.C., and raised in Sumter, is the daughter of Ernest A. Finney Jr., a former South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Frances Davenport Finney, an elementary school teacher. In 2002, Finney was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent in Chicago, Ill.
In her career as a poet, Finney has received several awards for her work including the PEN American Open Book Award for her book Rice in 1997, the Benjamin Franklin Award First Place in Poetry for The World Is Round in 2004, and the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011 for collection Head Off & Split. Finney taught for 20 years at the University of Kentucky, and since 2013, she has held the Harold Bennet, Jr. Chair of Southern Letters and Literature at the University of South Carolina.
Finney’s poem The Thinking Men was written for and dedicated to the slaves and free black men who built Main Building on Wofford College’s campus. Finney said she believes the enslaved workers realized that someday people who looked like them would attend the college. Copies of The Thinking Men can be found on the first floor of the east tower of Old Main, where a small portion of the original building is visible behind a glass panel, called “Builders Niche,” a memorial to the slaves and free black men.
Finney will read and discuss her poetry on Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Leonard Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
