Patricia Spears Jones, poet, playwright and cultural commentator, is the 2013 recipient of the Black Student Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award presented recently at the college’s homecoming. The award has been presented since 1998.
While at Rhodes, Jones was involved in organizations such as the Black Student Association, The Sou′wester, the Publications Board, and the Kinney Program. A native of Arkansas, Jones received a bachelor’s degree from Rhodes in 1973 and has lived in New York City where she has been involved in the city′s poetry and theater scenes.
Named by Essence.com as one of its “40 Poets They Love,” she is author of three volumes of poetry: Painkiller, Femme du Monde, and The Weather That Kills. In addition, she has been a guest blogger for The Poetry Foundation.
One of her poems, "Beuys and the Blonde," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She also is a recipient of The New York Community Trust’s Oscar Williams and Gene Derwood Award and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Goethe Institute for travel and research in Germany.