Join us for an evening of poetry showcasing new collections by three fabulous poets. Boyce-Taylor is the author of Arrival (Northwestern University Press, 2017), which Patrick Rosal describes as “wise and free and full of the weeping and laughter that might just help you survive.” ford‘s debut collection how to get over (Red Hen Press 2017) was called a “a Live/Lie/Love/Die survival guide for survivors of drug wars and hip hop fantasies” by Tyehimba Jess. Charleston is the author of Telepathologies, which, in the words of D.A. Powell, holds poems that “testify in the eternal court of history.” Free and open to the public. Refreshments served. This event is co-sponsored by the NYU Creative Writing Program.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and workshop facilitator. The recipient of the 2015 Barnes and Noble Writers For Writers Award, she is the founder and curator of Calypso Muse and the Glitter Pomegranate Performance Series. Cheryl earned an MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine, and an MSW from Fordham University. She is the author of four collections of poetry: Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, Convincing the Body and Arrival. A poetry judge for the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Astraea Foundation, she has facilitated poetry workshops for Cave Canem, Poets & Writers, Poets House and the Caribbean Literary and Cultural Center. Her poetry has been commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow, The Joyce Theater, and the National Endowment for the Arts for Ronald K. Brown: Evidence, A Dance Company. A VONA fellow, her work has been published in Callaloo, Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pluck!, Killings Journal of Arts & Letters, Adrienne and Prairie Schooner.
Cortney Lamar Charleston is the author of Telepathologies, selected by D.A. Powell for the 2016 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. A recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, The Conversation Literary Festival and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, his poems have appeared in Poetry, New England Review, Gulf Coast, TriQuarterly, River Styx and elsewhere.
t’ai freedom ford is a New York City high school English teacher and Cave Canem Fellow. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Drunken Boat, No, Dear, The African American Review, Vinyl, Muzzle, RHINO, Poetry and others. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies including The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. In 2012 and 2013, she completed two multi-city tours as a part of a queer women of color literary salon, The Revival. In 2014, she was the winner of The Feminist Wire’s inaugural poetry contest judged by Evie Shocklee. She was a 2015 Center for Fiction Fellow and the Poetry Project’s 2016 Emerge-Surface-Be Poetry fellow. Winner of the 2015 To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize, her first poetry collection, how to get over is available from Red Hen Press. t’ai lives and loves in Brooklyn where she is a co-editor at No, Dear Magazine.