As the school year kicks off once again, Harvard University has appointed Toronto poet laureate George Elliott Clarke to a visiting professor post in the university’s Canada Program.

Established in 1967, the program offers undergraduate and graduate courses taught by distinguished Canadian scholars in a variety of disciplines. Clarke will teach two courses on African-Canadian literature: Black Like Who?, a fall undergraduate course, and Black Epics of the Americas, a graduate-level course offered during the spring semester. Clarke will also be responsible for organizing a seminar series and faculty conference.

Back in Toronto, Clarke will continue his duties as both poet laureate and the E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto. On Sept. 28, Clarke will host the inaugural East End Poetry Festival, which features an all-ages workshop on spoken-word poetry with Randell Adjei, and the participation by poets Katie Marshall Flaherty, Ronna Bloom, and Rocco de Giacomo. The event will take place in Clarke’s east end neighbourhood at the Children’s Peace Theatre.