Join us on Friday, September 22 at 7 pm for a Booksweet Poetry Night with Shutta Crum, Marilyn Churchill, Leslie McGraw, and Kyoko.
This is a FREE event, but your Eventbrite RSVP is so helpful to our planning.
Shutta Crum will be reading from her poetry collection When You Get Here, winner of a gold Royal Palm Literary Award. More than 160 of her poems have appeared in various journals such as Calyx and Boulevard. And she’s written eighteen books for young readers, including a Smithsonian Magazine and an ALA “notable” book of the year. The Wordsmith’s Playground is her monthly newsletter.
Marilyn Churchill’s chapbook Memory Stones includes both her poetry and visual art. Her poems have appeared in various journals such as Passager, Peninsula Poets, and Third Wednesday, and she has received a number of awards for individual poems and a short story. She is currently completing the manuscript for a second book of poems.
Leslie McGraw is a poet, digital media activist, and former creative inspiration and emcee of the Bookbound open mic & share poetry series (2013-2020) and Life by Poetry online community. Her essay, Roses Come in Black, Too was published in the As/Us Women of the World Journal. Her debut poetry collection, Emergencies of the Heart, was published in 2014, with a second edition released in September 2022 by Black Muse Publishing, dedicated to the 267 Black lives lost on 9-11. Recently, Leslie was chosen as one of five poets across the nation for the 2022 Black Fire This Time Summer Fellowship by Willow Books in Detroit, Michigan. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X @lifebypoetry.
Kyoko is a disabled single mother, writer, poet, singer, warrior, advocate for mental health, chronic illness, survivor and domestic violence awareness advocate. She has taken all of these things and moments and created her own art out of them in the form of poetry. For this event, Kyoko will be reading from her latest poetry collection, Liquid Gold Tattooed. Follow her on Instagram @kyokothepoet.