Greenwood’s Monday afternoon talk, “Overthrowing Deadly Metaphors,” kicked off the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics’ week of Black Study Intensive sessions. The event featured Greenwood presenting her unpublished paper on the language of Aristotle, as well as discussion with Greenwood moderated by Dan Kubis, senior English literature lecturer.

Short answer — not as much as you think.

Johnny and Barbara arrive at their father’s grave in rural Pennsylvania, a storm brewing in the distance. A gaunt, staggering man approaches silently across the landscape of headstones. He murders Johnny....