Video

José Olivarez—poet, performer, educator, and former Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow—reads Manuel Paul López’s poem “There Is a Hole in My Living Room” and his own poem “Ode to Cheese Fries” from his book Citizen Illegal.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Poet and distinguished professor Kimiko Hahn reads from Meena Alexander’s Night-Scene, The Garden and her own new book Foreign Bodies amid the construction at Poets House.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Laure-Anne Bosselaar—award-winning poet, translator, and educator—reads Lee Briccetti’s “Distance,” from Blue Guide, and her own poem “On a Bench by the Hudson,” from her collection A New Hunger.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Naomi Shihab Nye—prolific author, editor, and Young People’s Poet Laureate—reads her mentor William Stafford’s “A Bird Inside a Box” and two recent poems of her own.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Poet and teaching artist Shyanne Figueroa Bennett reads from Aracelis Girmay’s book the black maria and shares her own recent poem “LAKE GATÚN,” first published in Issue Six of Oversound.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Watch Bob Holman—poet, filmmaker, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club—as he reads June Jordan’s “Financial Planning” and his own poem “We Are the Dinosaur” from his book The Collect Call of the Wild.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Former U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith presents Jericho Brown’s “After Avery R. Young” and her own “Found Poem” from her most recent book Such Color.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

For his Hard Hat Reading, Interim Director Cornelius Eady—poet, musician, and educator—performs Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats” and his own poem “The Ghost, The Mountain” from his book Hardheaded Weather.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Kick off the Hard Hat Reading series with Monica Youn—poet, educator, and Poets House Board Member—as she reads from A Woman’s Mourning Song by bell hooks and her own recent book Blackacre.

Content note: talk of suicide.

This event is part of the ongoing Hard Hat Reading Series, featuring poetry readings by members of the Poets House community.

Meet Interim Director Cornelius Eady—poet, musician, and co-founder of Cave Canem—for a virtual hard hat tour around the Poets House space.