The West African Research Center (WARC) started this year’s lecture series on Wednesday, January 12, with a poetry reading by the famous Senegalese poet and literary heir to Leopold Sedar Senghor, Amadou Lamine Sall. Mr. Sall’s English translators, Americans Jim and Lydie Haelin, were also present and read a selection of translated poems. The panel was completed by well-known Senegalese suwer artist, Germaine Anta Gaye, who illustrated the collection of translated poems.

In addition to being an accomplished poet, Amadou Lamine Sall currently serves as the Director of the Goree-Almadies Memorial Project in the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and is president of the Maison Africaine de la Poesie Internationale.

The event was attended by a very diverse audience including Senegalese and American students and researchers, as well as others from various countries in West Africa. We were honored by the presence of M. Makhily Gassama, former Minister of Culture and advisor to late president Leopold Sedar Senghor, literary critic, and current representative of UNESCO in Gabon. The event was covered by local print media.