Ali, Armantrout, Daye, Erdrich, Escobar, harris, Harvey, King, Machado, Taulapapa McMullin, Murillo, Robertson, Sáma, Wah, Whitehead, Wong, Yamanaka!
A Message to Our Community
Poets House joins with all people of conscience to express outrage and pain as crisis grips our nation.
Police brutality continues unabated: Jacob Blake, shot seven times in the back. Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery—just a few of the countless victims of systematic racism in our nation. At the same time the death toll from Covid-19 surpasses 180,000, inordinately impacting communities of color.
Over and over again racism expresses itself in lethal violence—and systemic racism expresses itself in ruined lives and death. Now is the time for all voices to be raised to demand our justice system be remade and inequity throughout our culture be redressed.
What can poetry do in the face of these calamities—calamities not equally shared among us? Poets House acts on the belief that poetry bears witness, incites a language of mutuality and care, and by so doing insists on individual and collective action to bring about change. Poetry helps us find ways to stand in solidarity against brutality.
As the great Caribbean poet Édouard Glissant wrote, We cry our cry of poetry. Our boats are open and we sail them for everyone.
With love and solidarity,
Nicholas Potter, President
Linda Earle, Vice President
Lee Briccetti, Executive Director
The library is closed but we have many digital initiatives for our community.
Upcoming Events
Oct1
Photo: Pinestereo
Craft Talk with Carl Phillips
Oct 1, 2020 | 5:00 pm - 6:00 pmCarl Phillips gives a craft talk on “Pale Colors in a Tall Field” reflecting on his poetics, process, and mentoring next generation poets.
Poets House Presents: Tyree Daye
Oct 2, 2020 | 12:00 pm - 12:20 pmPoet and Educator Tyree Daye reads from his forthcoming second collection Cardinal (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), from Raleigh, NC.
Poets House Presents: Heid E. Erdrich
Oct 9, 2020 | 12:00 pm - 12:20 pmProlific Poet and interdisciplinary artist Heid E. Erdrich reads from “Little Big Bully” (Penguin, forthcoming 2020), from Minneapolis, MN.
From the Blog
Poets House Fall 2020 Workshops: Weekend Master Classes and Six-Week Courses
Video conference workshops with Kazim Ali, Rae Armantrout, Rick Barot, Joanna Fuhrman, Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones & Xandria Phillips!
Poets at the End of the World raises $20K for housing fund for the unemployed
Social justice collective of poets offers grants for unemployed people of color who face housing insecurity and identify as trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary or women.
Our Fall 2020 Series of Ten-Minute Readings
Ali, Armantrout, Daye, Erdrich, Escobar, harris, Harvey, King, Machado, Taulapapa McMullin, Murillo, Robertson, Sáma, Wah, Whitehead, Wong, Yamanaka!
Poets House Fall 2020 Workshops: Weekend Master Classes and Six-Week Courses
Video conference workshops with Kazim Ali, Rae Armantrout, Rick Barot, Joanna Fuhrman, Cyree Jarelle Johnson, Patricia Spears Jones & Xandria Phillips!
Poets at the End of the World raises $20K for housing fund for the unemployed
Social justice collective of poets offers grants for unemployed people of color who face housing insecurity and identify as trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary or women.