The Green Way Reading Series is a monthly literary event based in Takoma Park, MD curated by Elizabeth Bryant and Takoma Park’s Poet Laureate Taylor Johnson. The series centers emerging and established poets and artists in interdisciplinary, intergenerational and cross-regional dialogues. We want these programs to encourage growing participation and local engagement in the evolving landscape of contemporary poetry.

Jalynn Harris is a poet, educator, editor, and press founder from Baltimore, MD. She founded SoftSavagePress for the sole purpose of promoting visual and literary works by Black people. Her work has been featured in The Best American Poetry 2022, Poets.org, The Hopkins Review, Feminist Studies, and elsewhere.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, was named among the “Best Poetry of the Last Year” by Ms. Magazine, and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023. She is editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs. Manick has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For 10 years she curated Soul Sister Revue, a quarterly reading series that promoted poetry as storytelling and featured emerging poets, poet laureates, and Pulitzer prize winners. Her poem “Things I Carry Into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems, an organization dedicated to video poetry, and has debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller and performer at literary festivals, libraries, universities, and museums, Manick’s work has also featured in VOICES, an audio play by Aja Monet and Eve Ensler’s V-Day, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, the Rumpus and other outlets. She currently serves on the editorial board of Alice James Books. She lives in New York, but travels widely for poetry.

Rasheed Copeland is the author of The Book of Silence: Manhood As a Pseudoscience (Sergeant Press, 2015). A multiple recipient of the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities Fellowship Award, he is a native of Washington, D.C.

If you want to purchase the book online and still support People’s Book, follow the link below:

https://bookshop.org/a/101932/9780063244306

This is an in-person event. Seated capacity at People’s Book is 50 patrons. Standing room is an option. All events are first come first serve seating. Accessible seating is always available.