Wild Indigo Reading (Not Hosting): Tamiko Beyer, Lady Sarkazym, Artress Bethany White
Reading of Tamiko Beyer, Lady Sarkazym, Artress Bethany White, hosted by Sarah Browning
Southwest Philadelphia Poetry Series at Eastwick Library: Hiwot Adilow (not hosting)
Hiwot Adilow is an Ethiopian-American poet from Philadelphia. She is one of the 2018 recipients of the Brunel International African Poetry prize and author of the chapbook In the House of My Father (Two Sylvias Press, 2018).
The project emerged from collaboration with Eastwick Library, Khyra Lammers (Library Supervisor) and 2026-2027 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raina J. León
Attending Margins Virtual Conference
https://www.thewordfordiversity.org/margins
From the Margins website
“Now is the Time When Artists Go to Work
We invite you to join us at the 5th [margins.] conference---rooted in the call to meet this moment. It is when there is no clear bright light, when our pathways are being stolen and shut down--that is when the creative and complicated ways that we can do good through our work are most called upon.
In 2026, we invite you to join a conference that emerges from the common refrain of past attendees that "[margins.] feels like a retreat." This year, our workshops and panels will take on a roundtable element to each, leaning into that retreat-like feeling of community care by building sessions through conversation, reflection, and imagination that invites participants and instructors to co-create.”
Eastwick Southwest Mini-Poetry Series: Raina J. León
Reading from Raina J. León
The project emerged from collaboration with Eastwick Library, Khyra Lammers (Library Supervisor) and 2026-2027 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raina J. León
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Cheryl Jones, Christopher KP Brown, LindoYes!, Phil Dyckhouse, and Khalisa
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Cheryl Jones, Christopher KP Brown, LindoYes!, Phil Dyckhouse, and Khalisa
Reading at Harlem Book Festival
The Harlem Book Fair is the nation's most recognized African American book festival. It is presented annually on the third weekend of July.
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Peggy Robles Alvarado and Airea Dee Matthews
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Peggy Robles Alvarado and Airea Dee Matthews
Monday Poets, hosting Denice Frohman and Selina Cvgebird Carrera
Monday Poets, hosting Denice Frohman and Selina Cvgebird Carrera
Brooklyn Book Festival with Black Lawrence Press
Brooklyn Book Festival with Black Lawrence Press
More information to come
HELD DATES: Possible reading and discussion at Kelly Writers House
More information coming!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Attending Dodge Poetry Festival
I’ll be attending Dodge Poetry Festival this year. Going to all the panels, celebrating the poetry, enjoying the family fun day with my children and husband, and generally delighting in all things Newark. I’m hoping to also do some research on the life of my Aunt Doris Rheubottom while I’m there!
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Patricia Smith and Selina Cvgebird Carrera
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Patricia Smith and Selina Cvgebird Carrera
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Sarah Browning, Dan Vera, and Sue Scheid
Wild Indigo Poetry Reading Series, featuring Sarah Browning, Dan Vera, and Sue Scheid
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Open Hours at Blanche A Nixon (Cobbs Creek) Library in Philadelphia
Open (Office) Hours with the Philadelphia Poet Laureate at Blanche A. Nixon Library. Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? In this series, poet laureate, Raina León will be going to library locations across the city. Check the calendar for details.
Workshop: The Watering Hole
Mercury may be in retrograde, but the archive always has something to say
In this workshop, we consider the stars and the archives as parallel technologies: the star map and migration maps, photographs of the true colors of the moon and photographs of the body’s joys and survival, the names of returning comets with the repeated names on a family tree … and more. We will read poems of the stars and archival transformations. We are star dust; act like you know.
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Reading at West Park Arts Festival
https://westparkcultural.org/west-park-arts-fest
Presentation of poems and poetic ttranscription from interview of community matriarch, Mrs. Callalily Cousar
Eastwick Southwest Poets Mini-Series: Featuring Saskia Kercy
Hosting a reading of Southwest Philadelphia, poet and cultural worker, Saskia Kercy
Saskia is a social scientist, educator, and writer from Philly by way of Haiti. A master of economics with accolades in research and poetry, she has been published across newspapers, magazines, and literary journals. Saskia currently serves as a visiting professor of economics, research consultant, organizer, teaching artist, and creative writer. More from this eldest daughter @saskiakercy and bysaskia.co.
At the Eastwick Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia
The project emerged from collaboration with Eastwick Library, Khyra Lammers (Library Supervisor) and 2026-2027 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Raina J. León
Sail Through This to That project
Sail Through This to That by artist indira allegra is a part of the ArtPhilly What Now festival taking place this spring/early summer. The project honors and celebrates the lives of two Black women from very different times, Ona Judge and Rem'mie Fells, with the creation of vibrantly colored sails, inspired by Rem'mie's wardrobe, which will be installed and displayed on a sailboat similar to the one Ona may have escaped on.
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Poets' Studio: "Moxie and Play: Writing with the Lively Spirits of Archives"
Reading some poems about Doris Rheubottom and then encouraging people to share stories about the untold, brushed aside, erased courageous characters in archives who lived their truths and inspire us.
Swing Mezzo Residency in Uniontown
Arts and history residency in Uniontown, PA to do interviews, write and create art in response to recovering the life stories of Doris Rheubottom Hackley
Woodmere Art Museum - Children's Gallery Opening - WHM
Reading and introduction
“The Woodmere Children’s Art Exhibit is a showcase featuring student artwork from several Philadelphia schools, including a two-month art project for students in grades 3 -8 led by Woodmere’s Educational Art Instructors. This year’s theme, “I Dream a World”
by Langston Hughes, celebrates the city’s 250th anniversary and encourages students to explore creativity, identity, and community through their work. The exhibit will open with a reception and short speaking program, bringing together students, families, and
partners to celebrate their achievements, and the artwork will remain on public display throughout the summer for family and community members to visit and enjoy.
World Heritage Month will be a multi-organization collaborative celebration taking place throughout the month of May, showcasing the culture, history, and international impact of our World Heritage City. Global Philadelphia will facilitate several events that GPA
will host or partner on during the month, while community partners will contribute additional programming. Together, these events will create four weeks of programming celebrating our global city.”
Wild Indigo Hosting: Joel Dias-Porter and Olga Livshin
It's May! You know what that means: primary season, mom celebrations, graduations, and, as ever, poetry! You're not going to want to miss this month's Wild Indigo, featuring Joel Dias-Porter (aka DJ Renegade) and Olga Livshin! And for the third time, we'll be offering ASL interpretation. Please spread the word!
Sunday, May 17, 5-7 pm
Young American Hard Cider & Tasting Room
6350 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia
$5 donation - more if you can!
Get your tickets in advance here: https://bit.ly/25wildindigo26
Poets will have books for sale.
The venue is wheelchair accessible and the event is mask friendly. Bring your poem for the open mic! (It's best to arrive a few minutes early to sign up - this is a popular mic and spaces are limited!)
Co-sponsored by the progressive organization Reclaim Philadelphia, who will be sharing out about this important election season, and by our fabulous venue, Young American Hard Cider. With support from the Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People & Animals.
Featured poets:
Joel Dias-Porter (aka DJ Renegade) is originally from Pittsburgh, PA & resides in South Jersey. The 1998 & 1999 Haiku Slam Champion, his poems have been published in POETRY, Mead, Best American Poetry 2014, Callaloo, Asahi Shimbun, Ploughshares, the New York Times, & the anthologies, Short Fuse, Role Call, Def Poetry Jam, 360 Degrees of Black Poetry, Slam (The Book), Poetry Nation, Beyond the Frontier, and Catch a Fire. A Cave Canem Fellow, in 1995 he received the Furious Flower "Emerging Poet Award.” His collection “Ideas of Improvisation” is on Thread Makes Blanket Press (Jun 2022).
Olga Livshin’s poetry recently appears in Poetry, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, and other journals. She is the author of A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman (2019) and co-translator of Lyudmyla Khersonska's Today Is a Different War (2023). In the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Livshin co-organized “Voices for Ukraine,” an online reading of Ukrainian poets and their translators, attended by over 800 people. Livshin's poetry in support of Ukraine has been read at fundraising events in St. Louis, Miami, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Philadelphia is also home.
Seen, Sound, Scribe (Mind and the Muse)
Since 2022, Brooklyn’s own Mahogany L. Browne—a prolific writer and avid advocate for public art—has held the role of Lincoln Center’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence. Browne has written works of fiction, stage plays and critical essays, edited six anthologies, and authored another half-dozen poetry collections. For her ever-expanding Seen, Sound, Scribe series, Browne curates thought-provoking evenings of spoken word, spirited conversation, poetry, and presentations of new work, presenting major poets and emerging voices on the New York literary scene.
Featured Artists include:
Laura K Chung (Astrologer)
Idris Goodwin (YA Author/Playwright)
DJ Belinda Becker
Radha Blank (Actress, Filmmaker)
Raina Leon (Philly Poet Laureate)
Virtual Workshop with Carolina African American Writers Collective
Holding space for the Carolina African American Writers Collective
Workshop with Natural Creativity, Philadelphia
Revealing the layers of the world through language
What do we know about poetry? What do we want to know? Let’s delight in great poems and create some of our own.
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Poet Laureate Open Hours
Want to know what a poet likes to read or what they are working on these days? Need some feedback on a poem? Want to talk about what it means to be a poet or how to become one? Come to Poet Laureate Raina León's open hours at the Parkway Central's Literature Department on the Second Floor. There's a typewriter that is calling your name!
Reading at Celia's
Celebrate poetry at Celia Bookstore with a vibrant evening hosted by poets Dilruba Ahmed and Sham-e-Ali Nayeem!
Poetry followed by light snacks, and music. Dancing encouraged!
Plus, mingle with other local writers. Raina J. León, Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, will read her poetry, along with three Swarthmore College students. Books will be available for purchase and signing.
Tickets $5 online or at the door.
Reading at Fergie’s Pub
Dilruba Ahmed (Ruba) is the author of Bring Now the Angels and Dhaka Dust, which won the Bakeless Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. Her poems have also been anthologized in The Best American Poetry 2019, Halal If You Hear Me, Literature: The Human Experience, Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry, and elsewhere. Ahmed is the recipient of The Florida Review’s Editors’ Award, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Memorial Prize, and the Katharine Bakeless Nason Fellowship in Poetry awarded by the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.
Barbara Siegel Carlson is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Current published by Lily Poetry Review Books, 2026. Her poetry and translations have appeared in Verse Daily, Cortland Review, Mid-American Review, Salamander, 2River, The Poetry Porch and others. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Carlson is a Poetry in Translation Editor of Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. She lives in Carver, Massachusetts.
Raina J. León, PhD, 2026-2027 Philadelphia Poet Laureate, is a Black, Afro-Boricua poet, writer, and educator from southwest Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). Her work is grounded in collective action and community engagement, centering storytelling, memory, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education across poetry, visual art, and archival practice. She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and several chapbooks, and is the founding editor of The Acentos Review, an international journal dedicated to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. Her work has been supported by fellowships and residencies from organizations including the Obsidian Foundation, MacDowell, Vermont Studio Center, and Ragdale. León is professor emerita at Saint Mary's College of California, where she was the first Afro-Latina to achieve the rank of full professor in the college's more than 150-year history. She currently teaches creative writing in the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine and is a co-founder of the Wild Indigo Poetry Reding Series, the Esperimento Sul Respiro residency program in Italy, and StoryJoy,Inc.
ariel rosé is a trans gender / androgynous / queer poet, essayist, and illustrator originally from Poland, resident of Norway, a nomad. Shortlisted for the Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize and Złota Magdalenka Prize in Poland. Ariel is coming to the United States to read from Both Sides Face East. Durable Words, that they edited: well as their latest poetry collection, morze nocą jest mięśniem serca (the sea at night is a muscle of the heart) nominated for the Orfeusz Award, and Północ. Przypowieści, which had its launch at the Miłosz Festival and was nominated for the Polish-German Josepha Award (both published under the name Alicja Rosé). ariel received the Warsaw Literary Award and was named to the IBBY Honor List for their illustrations for Magdalena Tulli’s book Ten i Tamten Las (This and The Other Forest). They were also nominated for the Most Beautiful Book Award for their illustrations for Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s Kocia Książka (Cat Book).
Aaren Perry Host - Open Reading Follows
Attending Monument Lab: Monumaking Conference
From Monument Lab Website:
“Regular Registration is now open for the 2026 Monument Lab Summit.
The 2026 Monument Lab Summit: “School of Monumaking” invites artists, educators, activists, and cultural leaders to imagine monument-making as a living classroom.
Over three days, participants gather for a dynamic “school day” of screenings, keynote conversations, creative sessions, and collaborative workshops that explore how public memory is made—and remade—through art, care, and collective action. From bold national perspectives to intimate community histories, the Summit centers monument-making as an ongoing practice of learning together: asking who is remembered, how stories are told, and what it takes to build more just public landscapes.
Across keynote talks, “class periods,” film screenings, and hands-on sessions, the School of Monumaking celebrates experimentation, repair, and imagination in public art. Attendees will move between reflection and celebration—learning new strategies, sharing ideas, and experiencing art that expands what monuments can be. Whether joining conversations about national memory, collaborating on creative exercises, or dancing together at the closing celebration, participants will experience a Summit designed as both a classroom and a community.
What it means to attend the School of Monumaking:
Class Periods with Leading Practitioners
Participate in themed sessions with artists, scholars, and cultural leaders exploring monument-making through art, history, activism, and technology.
Monumaking 101
A hands-on workshop where Monument Lab leaders and partners share tools, strategies, and lessons from real-world monument projects—inviting participants to develop their own ideas.
Film Screenings
Experience films and digital artworks that reveal the hidden stories and creative processes behind monuments, including An American Reflection, a powerful visualization of Monument Lab’s National Monument Audit.
Office Hours
Bring your own ideas, proposals, or works-in-progress to small-group consultations with Monument Lab’s network of artists and experts.
Community Panels & Conversations
Learn from collaborative monument projects that model how public art can honor collective action and shared histories.
Celebrations & Gatherings
From the opening Back to School Night reception to the closing Promument dance party, the Summit creates space to connect, reflect, and celebrate together.
Special Summit Moments:
Recess
An evening gathering of music, art-making, snacks, and playful collaboration—because even monument-makers need time to recharge and create together.
Promument
A prom-themed closing celebration honoring the creativity, collaboration, and joy that power monument-making today.”
Attending: Global Philadelphia Alliance World Heritage Month Reception
“GPA, in partnership with the PA Convention Center, is showcasing our SDG Mini-mural Expo in the Grand Hall for the entirety of 2026. These are 36” by 36” replicas of our original SDG murals that show the wide range of pieces celebrating the UN’s SDG. The reception will celebrate GPA’s work and our partners who have helped create GPA’s SDG Public Art Initiative. This will include City Council partners, WHM partners and sponsors, the SDG artist, the SDG sponsors, and other community members. The reception will include a viewing of the murals, a speakers' program, and a social post the program.The ceremony will be the opening event for GPA's World Heritage Month and celebrate our SDG Public Art Initiative.
A unique, multi-layered initiative, our SDG campaign combines a creative mix of ingredients: the interpretive power of art, the knowledge and resources of our local academic communities, the strong will of corporate and individual sponsors and more. This combined with the financial contributions to local nonprofit organizations, truly exemplifies the shared goals within our city, and the community who supports us.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Project calls attention to crucial sustainability issues with a timeline to make significant progress by 2030. GPA and local partners have created a comprehensive set of public artworks to raise awareness of these 17 elemental goals. But the project’s impact goes beyond the art.”
Wild Indigo with Karen Smith, Sean Hanrahan, and Grant Klauser
Sarah Browning will be hosting this exciting reading with guest co-host, Saskia Kercy. More information to come.
I’ll be on a retreat in Perü.
Divine Feminine Retreat in Perú
“Reconnect with the Rhythms of Mother Earth
Feel deeply grounded and connected to Pachamama, Mother Earth. You'll have the opportunity to forge a profound connection with the trees, rivers, mountains, and the sacred elements that sustain us all.
Learn from the Wisdom of Indigenous Healers
Guided by the knowledge and experience of indigenous healers, you will participate in life-changing rituals and ceremonies that support spiritual and emotional healing
Cultivate Lasting Interdependent Community
Through shared experiences, deep conversations, and intentional community building, you'll experience deep connection and vulnerability with a community that will nourish you before, during, and beyond this retreat.”
Wild Indigo featuring
Hosting Wild Indigo with Sarah Browning with three incredible featured poets and an open mic.
Jeannine A. Cook (any pronouns) is a writer and shopkeeper at Harriett’s Bookshop in Philadelphia and Ida’s Bookshop.
Yamini Pathak is the author of poetry collection Her Mouth A Palace of Lamps (Milk & Cake Press, 2025) and chapbooks Atlas of Lost Places (Milk & Cake Press) and Breath Fire Water Song (Ghost City Press). She is a member of the 2025 Poets & Writers' Get the Word Out Poetry Cohort and the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship by the NJ State Council on the Arts. She holds an MFA from Antioch University, LA and her poems appear in West Branch, Poetry Northwest, and Tupelo Quarterly, among other journals. Yamini was nominated for Best New Poets and was a finalist for Frontier Poetry’s Global Poetry Prize. She lives with her family in West Windsor, NJ.
Jan Beatty’s eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, 2024. Her work was recently featured in POETRY, and her poem, Stripshot, was named one of the best poems read in 2024 by 50 Contemporary Poets on LitHub. Beatty’s memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Best American Poetry. She worked as a waitress, abortion counselor, and in maximum security prisons. She is Professor Emerita at Carlow University, where she directed the Madwomen in the Attic and the international low-residency MFA program.
AWP Book Signing of black god mother this body and profeta without refuge
12:30 Book signing at AWP Letras Latinas table with Brenda Cardenas
Book signing of black god mother this body and play with augmented reality and poetry with Halo
AWP Book Signing at Black Lawrence Press
BLP Booths 650 & 652, signing profeta without refuge
Letras Latinas Panel at AWP Baltimore
Organized by Laura Villareal and Francisco Aragón, with Brenda Cardenas, Raina J. León, Karla Cordero, and Cloud Delfina Cardona
Poet Community Leaders: A Letras Latinas Reading & Discussion
Friday, March 6, 10:35 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. ET
Ballroom II, Baltimore Convention Center, Level 400
When you are active in your local literary community, how do you carve out time to maintain a writing practice? After reading from their work, the poet laureate of Wisconsin, the cofounder of a vibrant reading series in Philadelphia, and the executive director of a community-based literary organization in California will share insights on the challenges of balancing their artistic practice while also serving their local communities.
Panelist Bios:
Brenda Cárdenas, Wisconsin Poet Laureate (2025–2027), is the author of Trace (Red Hen Press), winner of the 2023 Society of Midland Authors Award for Poetry and silver winner of Foreword Review’s Indie Poetry Prize; Boomerang (Bilingual Press); and three chapbooks. She also coedited Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance and Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest. Cárdenas’s poems have been widely published in journals such as Poetry, The American Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. She is Professor Emerita of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Cloud Delfina Cardona is an artist, writer, and book cover designer from San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of What Remains, winner of the 2020 Host Publications Chapbook Prize, and the past is a jean jacket, winner of the Hub City Press BIPOC Poetry Series. Cardona is the cofounder of Infrarrealista Review, a nonprofit that publishes Texan writers. She is an associate at Letras Latinas.
Karla Cordero is the author of How to Pull Apart the Earth, winner of the San Diego Book Award and finalist for the International Latino Book Award. Her work has been featured by NPR, the Academy of American Poets, The Oprah Magazine, Split This Rock, PANK, and The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, among other publications. She is a recipient of the COURAGE to WRITE grant from the de Groot Foundation and a California Arts Fellowship. She currently serves as executive director of Glassless Minds, a nonprofit arts organization, and teaches creative writing at MiraCosta College.
Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia and a member of Cave Canem, CantoMundo, and Macondo. She is the author of four books of poetry, including black god mother this body, and two chapbooks. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, professor emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California, and creative writing faculty at Stonecoast MFA. She cofounded the Wild Indigo Reading Series in Philadelphia and the Esperimento Sul Respiro residency program in Italy. Through creative archival research, she is writing the story of Doris Rheubottom, Blue Streak of Harlem.
Teaching at Stonecoast: “I dig poetry but how do you write that form stuff?”
"I dig poetry but how do you write that form stuff" (For Stonecoast MFA students only)
Last time you wrote a haiku was in 3rd grade and 5-7-5 was the last time you talked about poetic form ... or you read a few sonnets in high school and your teacher tried to explain how Shakespeare was doing some things, but your mind had other things going on ... or you love to nerd out about on iambic pentameter, rime royale, and a villanelle and the poets writing in those forms aren't all dead, male, and white but who they be? This is the generative workshop for you. You'll be choosing a book on poetics to read by contemporary authors and editors (list provided); a form that you want to try before workshop; a book that uses that form extensively by contemporary writers; and we will learn together how writers (like you) stick to and break the rules. You will write one poem before workshop in the form you choose. In workshop, we will also generate new work in forms like: haibun, sonnet, ziuhitsu, pantoum, haiku/low coup/sonku, golden shovel and quotilla, bop, abecedarian, and more (ex. ever done written a poem that's also a mad lib? You will try it in this workshop!) We will also take the fear out and put the joy into terms like meter, scansion, stanzas. If you ever looked at a poem and thought, "I'm not going to or I don't get it", followed by, "I can't write it", we are going to flip all that on its head. Choose this workshop and you will be adding another identity to your writer name tag: poet. The goals: - develop confidence reading poetry - learn some of the poets who are writing in form right now - get the poetic terms down so when a literary game show calls, you are ready - write the poems you might feel blocked to write (form has a way of opening up portals!) - have some fun (think trivia, dominoes, watercolor, and more)!
Reading with Lit Balm Series
Reading with Dorsía Smith Silva, Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Kimberly Reyes, and Ysabel Y. González on November 8th, at 5 pm with the Lit Balm Series.
Retreat in Medellín, Colombia (DIY)
For several months, I’ve been building a mountain-sized list of creative and professional tasks that I have looked upon from the winding river of life, incremently taking on one or another … and mostly not completed. But there is a time for cultivating and a time for seeding. The summer months for me were times of seeding.
I was supposed to be heading to New Orleans again as I did last year about this time, but some of my collaborative partners had things come up in their lives, so I had a week blocked out and nowhere to go.
But then I thought of my comay, and how I’d been wanting to visit her in Colombia. I looked at tickets on a whim … and at the time they were just $250 roundtrip! I didn’t get them when they were that low, but pretty close, and here I am, in Medellín, knocking out the easiest tasks and preparing to devote some significant time to the others. I’m electrified and moving and that’s a delight.
Prisoners Brunch
Text from Philly Peace Park:
Join us on Sunday afternoon for this year's Annual Prisoners' Families Brunch! Each year, @russellshoatz3rd coordinates this event in the spirit of his father, freedom-fighter and former political prisoner, Russell Maroon Shoatz (Rest in Power!).
*Fellowship with community members, families impacted by imprisonment, organizers, and activists!
**Enjoy a FREE delicious meal, catered by @southjazzkitchen @atiya_olas_spirit_first_foods @Chef Terry and more!
***Tap in with the African drummers and see some of Philly's finest artists perform, including @rainaleon @kxng_solje and @cvgebird !
****Hear from speakers providing insight on a variety of movements and campaigns, including efforts to decarcerate PA prisons and the struggle for Mumia Abu Jamal's retinal treatment!
*****Mama Assata Shakur making transition (Rest in Power!) makes this year's Brunch even more resonant! We will be sure to honor her life and legacy!
🌏: @oneartcommunitycenter (52nd/Media)
📆: Sunday, September 28th, 2025
🕛: 12-4pm
Spread the word! See you there!
Reading with the NJEA (New Jersey Education Association
From the event (text below provided by Dr. DaQuan Bashir)
Feeding Our Minds
To feed our minds means to nourish our understanding of culture, history, and identity. It’s about engaging with stories, literature, and lived experiences that deepen our awareness and appreciation of the diverse voices within the Hispanic community. Through reflection and learning, we honor our past and empower our future.
Feeding Our Bodies
Feeding our bodies means honoring the traditions, flavors, and nourishment passed down through generations. It’s about celebrating the diversity of Hispanic cuisine—not just as sustenance, but as a reflection of identity, wellness, and community. Through food, we connect with our roots, share stories, and preserve culture.
Feeding Our Souls
Feeding our souls means embracing the stories, traditions, and spiritual connections that shape who we are. It’s about honoring our ancestors, celebrating our resilience, and finding joy in shared customs. Through music, storytelling, and cultural expression, we nourish the spirit and strengthen the bonds that unite our communities.