Poets respond to the 2024 elections.

Published in January 2025, Poets reflect on the 2024 election and beyond. A poetry reading from the anthology Winter In America (Again) – and a community discussion in honor of Poetry Month.
“Poets from the United States and beyond respond to the 2024 Presidential election. The poems are rooted in a belief that the incoming administration will not relieve or heal us from our nation’s past: the destruction of the environment, the unbridled use of power, the pervasive narrative that Black lives do not matter, patriarchy, reproductive injustice for women, silent support for the US prison-industrial complex, and the lack of compassion for diverse gender identity, immigrants, the indigenous, and unsheltered populations.”

Love of a Black Planet: Afrofuturist Poetry

Delving into the dynamic intersection of Afrofuturism, Black comics, and poetry, editors and contributors to the anthology, The Future of Black, converse about how Black poets are using speculative narratives, cosmic visions, and superhero archetypes to reimagine the future of Black identity, culture, and resistance. They'll share their creative processes and ways in which they've employed verse to envision alternative futures. This will be an exciting discussion of visionary thought, cultural commentary, and literary craft.

Panelists include Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Gary Jackson, and Cynthia Manick, moderated by Sarah Buckner.

10:00 a.m. onward, Saturday, April 19, Top Ten Wines

Every year Unbound brings some of the most talented poets in the country to Columbia to perform their work. All day on Saturday you can stop by Top Ten Wines on Ninth Street and listen to wonderful poets read from their work in a cozy and intimate setting. A glass of wine (or two) is optional, of course, but, well, why wouldn’t you?

Featuring Jenny Molberg, Cynthia Manick, and John Gallaher

Schedule - https://www.unboundbookfestival.com/2025-panels

What do instruction manuals, recipes, medical prescriptions, collage, and packing slips have in common? They are all alternative forms of receiving information. What if we intercepted that information for the sake of poetry?  In this workshop, participants will imagine and learn how to use these alternate forms to cartograph the self or the world. We’ll cover poems by Terrance Hayes, Evie Shockley, Jessica Greenbaum, and more. In class prompts will be given and participants will generate first drafts of new work.

3 hours on Saturday  |  Nov 16  |  12-3pm ET  |  $105 ($90 for Members)

Remote Workshops will take place on Zoom. Please register here

The Efroymson Creative Writing Reading Series at Columbia College Chicago is one of the most dynamic, aesthetically diverse events of its kind in the city. Hosted by the School of Communication, Culture, and Society, the series attracts prestigious, award-winning fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers who perform, engage, and educate on a myriad of topics and traditions.

The series is committed to curating critically engaged contemporary works that challenge traditional discourse and embrace culturally relevant, diverse voices. Our unique connection to the vibrant cultural and educational district in the South Loop sets the stage for some of the most fascinating, inspiring, and influential conversations on the literary arts.

All events are free and open to the public, taking place on campus and online via Zoom. Register at https://engage.colum.edu/English/rsvp_boot?id=1930275

A Black Woman’s Avant Gardè

In this panel five renowned poets, Cynthia Manick, Natalie Graham, Tameka Cage Conley, and Anastacia-Reneé, with Nikia Chaney as moderator will discuss contemporary ideas of the black woman’s avant garde as they share their poetry and poetic endeavors to bring to light new ways of thinking about poetic layers and experimentation.

The contributions of black women poets should be included in definitions of the black avant garde. Black poets routinely experiment and innovate with visions of the future or the structural presentation and play of poems on the page. The black avant garde is rich with examples of poetic work in which forms seen as experimental and new are now taken for granted. But the avant garde for black women includes experimental poetic movements of subjectivity and interiority that is not as easy to define. For black women the avant garde is less about expressing performative aspects of innovation but more about illustrating and highlighting interior intersectional identities and concerns. Language is the backdrop to the absence of linear concepts that exist within. And the self, the body, the landscape, the subject, the sound, and the movements of those connections create expansive imaginable futures of possibilities that defy easy definition. Avant garde for black women demands a mirroring of paradoxical identities and a relationship to a self ever explored, one that is fully in the black woman’s intimate knowledge of intersectionality and her visceral immediate relationships with joy, trauma, love, loss, and spirituality.

Virtual Literary Open Mic and Reading Series
Watch the Live Stream on YouTube
Our Featured Readers

Michael Anania was born in 1939 in Omaha, Nebraska and studied at the University of Nebraska and the University at Buffalo. He has published fifteen books of poetry, most recently Heat Lines (2006), Continuous Showings (2017), Nightsongs and Clamors (2018), and In Time (2024). He has also published a novel, The Red Menace, and a collection of essays. His work has been widely anthologized, and his poetry and prose have been translated into German, French, Italian and Spanish. He worked as an editor at Audit, Audit/Poetry, Partisan Review and Tri-Quarterly and was poetry and literary editor of The Swallow Press. Anania taught at Buffalo, Northwestern University, The University of Chicago and is emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he twice directed the Graduate Program for Writers. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 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 the author of Brown Girl Polaris (a Belladonna chaplet), editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus and other outlets. She lives in New York but travels widely for poetry

Open Mic sign up occurs via FB - https://www.facebook.com/events/524493513426020/

Poetry harnesses the power of language to evoke deep emotions, capture fleeting moments, and convey profound truths. The essence of poetry lies in its ability to transform ordinary words into extraordinary experiences, making the intangible tangible and the ephemeral enduring. Through its universal themes and intimate reflections, poetry shares our humanity, offers solace, inspiration, or a new perspective. Join our panel of accomplished and visionary writers/poets in this engaging exploration of finding/knowing one’s way.

Moderator: Kayla Simmons

Kayla Starr Simmons is a Houston native now based in Brooklyn, New York. She is an avid reader and passionate advocate for literature. She is the founder of Black Girl Book Fest, a festival aimed at celebrating Black women in literature with an emphasis on community engagement. With a vibrant online presence as a book influencer, Kayla shares insightful reviews and connects with a diverse community of book lovers, helping them find their next great read. 

Panelists:

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 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 the author of Brown Girl Polaris (a Belladonna chaplet), editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus and other outlets. She lives in New York but travels widely for poetry.

Anastacia-Reneé (She/They) is a queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, playwright, former radio host, TEDX speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of (v.) (Gramma/Black Ocean), Forget It (Black Radish); Sidenotes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad, ), and Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere (HarperCollins/Amistad). Side Notes From The Archivist was selected as one of “NYPL Best Books of 2023,” and, The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.” Anastacia-Reneé is a recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award and, she was selected by NBC News as part of the list of "Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021's Must See LGBTQ Art Shows," for “(Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts” an installation at the Frye Art Museum. Anastacia-Reneé served as Seattle Civic Poet (2017-1019) during Seattle’s inaugural year of UNESCO status.

Brad Walrond (Every Where Alien) is a poet, author, conceptual/performance artist, and one of the foremost writers and performers of the 1990s Black Arts Movement centered in New York City. His works include the recordings Underneath the Metal, Eargasms: Crucial Poetics: vol.1; fallopia, on Shelley Nicole’s album, I Am American, produced by Vernon Reid, Walrond’s own full-length album, Alien Day, produced by Howard Alper; Blood Brothers, a multimedia installation; and Brad and Kimberley Knox’s short film Cyborg Heaven. 

P&T Knitwear is pleased to welcome Vincent Toro to celebrate the release of his newest poetry collection, Hivestruck: a "virtuostic" collection of Latinxfuturism that confronts the enigmatic and paradoxical relationship human beings have with technology, from "one of our most talented and daring poets." (John Keene, National Book Award-winning author of Punks)

Accompanying Vincent are acclaimed authors and poets Mahogany L. Browne (Vinyl Moon), Ricardo Maldonado (The Life Assignment), Cynthia Manick (No Sweet Without Brine), Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta (Way to Everywhere), Iain Haley Pollock (Like a Place), Ysabel Y. González (Wild Invocations), and Emdash (Underblong).

Along with the group reading, Vincent will be signing copies of Hivestruck.

Tickets can be purchased here - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vincent-toro-presents-hivestruck-tickets-929253120097

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/black-fire-this-time-new-york-tickets-944294228457

NJPAC’s free outdoor summer concert series, Horizon Sounds of the City, will feature spoken word poetry readings beginning July 11. The lineup for the annual series,  which takes place Thursdays at 6PM through August 8, features

Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, with a reading by Hugo dos Santos (July 11)

Ghanaian singer-songwriter and Fante rapper Kofi Kinaata, with a reading by Roberto Carlos Garcia  (July 18)

New Orleans funk band Galactic featuring vocal powerhouse Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, with a reading by Cynthia Manick  (July 25)

rap icon KRS-One, with a reading by Patrick Rosal  (August 1)

queen of New Orleans bounce Big Freedia, with a reading by Mariah Ayscue (August 8).

Link to announcement - https://www.broadwayworld.com/new-jersey/article/Dodge-Foundation-and-NJPAC-to-Present-Poetry-Events-in-Lead-Up-to-20th-Dodge-Poetry-Festival-20240711

Tina Cane and Cynthia Manick

Poetry in the Garden (formerly "A Garden of Verse") is back for another summer season! The series, produced by Ridgefield Poet Laureate Emerita Barb Jennes, will feature some of the nation's leading poets. Join us in KTM&HC's beautiful historic walled garden for weekly readings throughout the month of July. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and readings begin at 7 p.m.

The third reading of the season, on July 15, features Tina Cane and Cynthia Manick.

Tina Cane is the author of Year of the Murder Hornet (Veliz Books, 2022), Body of Work (Veliz Books, 2019), Once More With Feeling (Veliz Books, 2017),  Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante (Skillman Avenue Press, 2016),  and The Fifth Thought (Other Painters Press, 2008). She currently serves as Poet Laureate of Rhode Island.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023. She also the author of Blue Hallelujahs and served as editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry.

Register here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/creative-expressions-nyc-salon-sunday-july-14-2024-5-7-pm-tickets-940054316767 for the zoom link. The even is free and will include an open mic with sign up!

What does it mean to be the cartographer of the self? To identify its multitudes when the body is a nesting doll of possibility? We show different sides of ourselves based on the choices we make. We also play different roles in our lifetime—sibling, friend, lover, worker, etc. In this seminar, participants will poetically document various “selves” through memory, sense, and voice. We'll look at the work of Lucille Clifton, Terrence Hayes, Brenda Shaughnessy, Vievee Francis, Ocean Vuong, and others who interrogate identity in various ways.

Register here: https://lighthousewriters.org/workshop/art-self-portraits-v?session=7116

1:30 to 3:30 MDT/ 3:30 to 5:30 EST

Member: $75.00 Non-member: $85.00

Alan Williamson has authored 6 books of poetry, most recently Franciscan Notes (Tupelo, 2019). He has also published 6 books of criticism, most recently Dante and the Night Journey (Anthem First Hill, 2023). He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, & teaches in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

Mona Lisa Saloy is an Author & Folklorist, Educator, & Scholar. As a poet, her first book, Red Beans & Ricely Yours, won the T.S. Eliot Prize & the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. She is the former Poet Laureate of Louisiana, and her most recent collection, Black Creole Chronicles, is the 2024 One Book One New Orleans selection.

Jeanne Foster, Professor Emerita Saint Mary College of California, is a Unitarian Universalist minister. Goodbye, Silver Sister (Northwestern) is her latest poetry collection. Former Poet-in-Residence Tulane University, she is recipient of the QRL Poetry Award, MacDowell, New York State CAPS, Saint Lawrence, & Lannan Foundation grants.

Tierney Oberhammer is a writer based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in swamp pink, The Adroit Journal, Aster(ix), Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, & River Teeth. She lives with Jamie & Wavy.

Ed Ruzicka’s newest collection of poetry, Squalls, came out in March. His poems have appeared in the Atlanta Review, Rattle, Canary & the San Pedro River Review as well as many other literary journals & anthologies. Ed has been a finalist for the Dana Award & the New Millennium Award. Ed lives with his wife Renee & Tucker the doddering bulldog in Baton Rouge.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad-HarperCollins, 2023), which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023; editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry; and author of Blue Hallelujahs.

Free and Hosted by Michael Mecurio! Registration is easy: bit.ly/WTUIMay2024

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.

Three poets celebrate Black womanhood, weaving joy and elegy together in their verse. In Makeshift Altar, Amy M. Alvarez urges “Let survivor’s bones grow fat with sweet.” Cynthia Manick declares in No Sweet Without Brine, “I want us living, not just alive.” “I am done telling the kinder story. I am a myth of my own making,” January O’Neill tells us in Glitter Road.

Visit https://www.vabook.org/events/2024/03/soul-in-celebration/ for more information

Amy M. Alvarez is the author of Makeshift Altar and the co-editor of Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology. She has been awarded fellowships from CantoMundo, VONA, Macondo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Furious Flower Poetry Center. In July of last year, she was inducted as an Affrilachian Poet. Selected as one of 2022’s Best New Poets, her work has appeared in nationally and internationally recognized literary journals including Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Rattle, Colorado Review, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. Amy was born in New York City to Jamaican and Puerto Rican parents. She taught English, History, and Humanities courses at public high schools in the Bronx, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts. She currently teaches at West Virginia University.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine, which received five stars from Roxane Gay and was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book of 2023; 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. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For ten 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 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.

January Gill O’Neil is an associate professor at Salem State University and the author of Glitter Road, Rewilding, Misery Islands, and Underlife. From 2012—2018, she served as the executive director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival. Her poems and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day series, American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Sierra magazine, among others. Her poem, “At the Rededication of the Emmett Till Memorial,” was a co-winner of the 2022 Allen Ginsberg Poetry award from the Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College. She currently serves as the 2022—2024 board chair of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). A Virginia native, O’Neil earned her BA from Old Dominion University and her MFA from New York University. She lives in Beverly, MA.

Poetry Today: Writing in the Modern World | Jessica Abughattas, Raymond Antrobus and Cynthia Manick | Moderated by: Karisma Price

Jessica Abughattas is the author of Strip, winner of the 2020 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, selected by Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara. Her poems appear or are forthcoming in POETRY, Guernica, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. 

Raymond Antrobus MBE FRSL was born in London, Hackney to an English mother and Jamaican father. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements (Burning Eye, 2012) To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press, 2017), The Perseverance (Penned In The Margins / Tin House, 2018) and All The Names Given (Picador / Tin House, 2021). In 2019 he became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbone Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. Other accolades include the Ted Hughes Award, Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, PBS Winter Choice, A Sunday Times Young Writer of the year Award, Somerset Maugham Award and The Guardian Poetry Book Of The Year 2018, as well as a shortlist for The Griffin Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. In 2018 he was awarded The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, (Judged by Ocean Vuong), for his poem Sound Machine. Also in 2019 and 2021 his poems (Jamaican British, The Perseverance and Happy Birthday Moon) was added to the UK’s GCSE syllabus. He is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Complete Works 3, Jerwood Compton and the Royal Society of Literature. He is also one of the world's first recipients of an MA in Spoken Word education from Goldsmiths University. His poems have been published in POETRY, Poetry Review, Lit Hub, News Statesman, The Deaf Poets Society, among others.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, 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. She 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. Manick’s poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller at literary festivals, libraries, and museums, her 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 Brooklyn, New York but travels widely for poetry.

Savage Gollner Stage | Diboll Gallery

Cynthia Manick reads from her recently released collection No Sweet Without Brine, alongside poets and friends of the store Anastacia-Renee, Amber Flame, and Luther Hughes.

Amber Flame is an interdisciplinary artist whose work garnered residencies with Hedgebrook, Vermont Studio Center, and more. Her first poetry collection, Ordinary Cruelty, was published through Write Bloody Press, and her second, apocrifa, was published by Red Hen Press. Flame is a recipient of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture’s CityArtist grant and served as Hugo House's 2017–2019 Writer-in-Residence for Poetry. Flame’s work featured in Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19. She is Program Director for Hedgebrook, a residency for women-identified writers. Amber Flame is a queer Black dandy in Tacoma, Washington, who falls hard for a jumpsuit and some fresh kicks.

Luther Hughes (they/them) is the author of A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions, 2022), listed as best books of 2022 in The New Yorker, and the chapbook, Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), recommended by the American Library Association. They are the founder of Shade Literary Arts, an organization for queer writers of color, and cohosts The Poet Salon Podcast with Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat. Recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Rosenberg Fellowship and the 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize, they received their MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Their writing has been published in The Paris Review, Orion, American Poetry Review, and others. They’ve been featured in The Seattle Times, Forbes, Essence, KUOW Public Radio, The Slowdown, and more. Luther lives in Seattle, where they were born and raised.

Anastacia-Reneé is an award-winning cross-genre queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDX speaker and former Seattle Civic Poet. She is the author of Side Notes from the Archivist, (v.), and Forget It. Her mixed media art has been exhibited at the Fry Art Museum and her installation, “Don’t Be Absurd (Alice in Parts),” was chosen by NBC as one of the “Queer Artist of Color Must See LGBTQ Arts Shows.” She has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Artist Trust, Ragdale, Mineral School and others. Reneé’s poetry, fiction and nonfiction has been anthologized and published widely. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.