The Brooklyn Poets Reading Series returns for our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic on Sunday, July 18, at Ba'sik in Williamsburg, featuring poets Desiree C. Bailey, Chiwan Choi and Cheryl Boyce-Taylor! The reading is free and open to the public. Fully vaccinated guests are welcome to attend the reading without a mask; unvaccinated guests or those with one dose should wear a mask.
Join us for a pre-reading B.Y.O.Barbecue at 4 PM in Ba'sik's backyard garden, followed by the reading at 5 PM. We'll provide some burgers and dogs for starters, and you can throw whatever you bring on the grill—veggie/vegan options welcome! Additional food and drinks will be available for purchase from the Ba'sik bar. After the reading, stay for Ba'sik's Sunday-night jazz jam session if you like, from 7 to 10 PM.
"Back to the basics" is the inspiration behind [bā’sik], a Williamsburg bar that marks the return of the drinking establishment as a "public house"—a relaxing gathering place where friends and neighbors congregate over flowing drinks and pleasant fare. Ba'sik has featured cocktails and other libations ranging from inexpensive to craft, as well as an uncomplicated menu of "simple and fresh" offerings, since its opening in the fall of 2011. Ba'sik is located at 323 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11211, half a block from the Metropolitan Ave L stop and just a few blocks from the Metropolitan Ave G stop.
Desiree C. Bailey is the author of What Noise Against the Cane (Yale University Press, 2021), winner of the 2020 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. She is also the author of the fiction chapbook In Dirt or Saltwater (O’clock Press, 2016) and has short stories and poems published in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, American Short Fiction, Callaloo, the Academy of American Poets and elsewhere. Desiree is a recipient of awards from the New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts and Poets & Writers. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Desiree grew up in Queens, New York, and is currently an English teacher in Brooklyn.
Chiwan Choi is a poet, writer, publisher and lifelong seer of ghosts. He is the author of four full-length books of poetry: The Flood (Tia Chucha Press, 2010) and the Daughter Trilogy, three books that explore his lost daughter as ghost: Abductions (Writ Large Press, 2012), The Yellow House (CCM, 2017), and the forthcoming my name is wolf (summer 2021). He is also the author of multiple poetry chapbooks, including Time Out of Space and lo/fidelity lovesongs. He wrote, presented and destroyed the novel Ghostmaker throughout the course of 2015, as part of his ongoing examination on the meaning of a book, of conjuring and nurturing of ghosts. Choi has published his poetry, fiction and essays in numerous journals and magazines, including the New York Times Magazine, ONTHEBUS, Poem-A-Day and many other publications. He currently splits his time between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh with his wife.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and curator born in Trinidad and raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of five collections of poetry: Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, Convincing The Body, Arrival and Mama Phife Represents, a verse memoir about her son, hip hop legend Phife Dawg (Malik Taylor). Cheryl holds a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University and an MFA in creative writing from Stonecoast: The University of Southern Maine.
For more information and to request accommodations (including ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices and the text of the poems read), contact Jason Koo.
Note that by attending our events, you agree to the terms of our code of conduct. Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss from our programs any participant found to be in violation of this code. Thank you for respecting our community.