Cultural critic Greg Tate remarked that Kearney’s National Poetry Series selection, The Black Automaton (Fence Books, 2009), “flows from a consideration of urban speech, negro spontaneity and book learning.” Crescent City, a hyperopera composed by Anne LeBaron, premiered in Los Angeles in 2012. A Cave Canem fellow, he has received a Whiting Writers Award, a Coat Hanger award, MAP Fund grants and several fellowships. Kearney teaches in the School of Critical Studies at CalArts, but has also lectured in the Music and Theater schools. Red Hen Press will publish Patter in 2014.