It takes a village…a few BTS snaps of just some of the utterly incredible artists and production team that made “The Comet / Poppea” possible. Thank you all.
We had a good spin. ✨☄️♥️
Last night I got a chance to listen to April Gibson @poetmamawoman and @douglas.kearney in conversation over April’s incredible new book of poems: “The Span of a Small Lifetime” @birchbark_books .
The Comet / Poppea
An opera presented by MOCA and The Industry. Composed by George Lewis, libretto by Douglas Kearney.
Concept & Direction by Yuval Sharon. Starring (among many others!) Nardus Williams, Anthony Roth Costanzo, and the incomparable Davóne Tines.
Our Summer issue is here—featuring interviews with Mary Robison and Elaine Scarry, prose by Nancy Lemann, K Patrick, and Banu Mushtaq, poetry by Kim Hyesoon and Douglas Kearney, art by G. Peter Jemison and Lauren Halsey, a cover by Jeremy Frey, and more.
Follow the link in our bio to subscribe and read the issue in full.
Ridiculously belated update on joyous happenings from early (Mar 1) to very late (May 31) spring: 1-3: Saretta Morgan (check out her book ALT-NATURE!) & @_abeymer (preorder her chapbook TREE SURGEON!) reading at my house in the Waxy Gibbon series + attentive attractive audience. 4: local mezcal from Saretta. 5: fascinating seeds in paper from Alecia (planted and blooming rn). 6: Paige Webb and Douglas Kearney being badasses. 7: Anna Puentener serving us her freshly baked sourdough in class right before reading us her essay "Bread" (This photo, posted with permission, will have to stand in for all the other great student readings and performances I documented but forgot to get posting permission for) 8: Amazing poetry mail from @marsnoblerobinson who just published this great poem in a journal.
A few of the poetry collections from Wave Books that have come in recently. A press with a varied curation of its authors and their works, and a rather singular vision regarding the exterior of those published works. The last couple images are from inside Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi, one of their most recently published titles.
We are thrilled to host a conversation between April Gibson & Douglas Kearny, two amazing (and MN based!) poets, in celebration of April’s debut poetry collection, The Span of a Small Forever. This event is free & open to the public. You can find the registration link on our Linktree page, or in the story above. Thursday, June 20th, at 7:00 PM. Don’t miss it!
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With echoes of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals and Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, an extraordinary debut collection from a prize-winning poet that chronicles a Black woman’s journey through disability, the byzantine healthcare system, life-giving, taking, and sacrifice.
With breathtaking lyricism and a vulnerability that pierces the heart, April Gibson journeys through the emotional abysses, the daily pleasures, the frustrations, and the joys of being a Black woman living with chronic illness.
Gibson offers a unique perspective on “the body,” viewing disability and healthcare through both feminist and socio-economic lenses filtered by race and faith. Through gorgeous sensory language that migrates memories, from carefree innocence to the ravages formed in its absence, Gibson bears witness to grief, courage, and resistance to redefine herself on her own terms.
Gibson presents her body as a “looking glass” that re-envisions illness, womanhood, motherhood, religious relics and collective loss through her physicality, through her lamenting, through her unearthing, reckoning and rebirth. Not only do we see her, but see the “we” in her. The Span of a Small Forever is both testimony and transformation—heart-shattering in its honesty, it ultimately offers us transcendent beauty, nourishment, and the strength we need to go on in our lives.
We invite you to apply for our Early Career Black Writers Cohort. Please help us spread the word to others who might be interested in this opportunity!
Please use the link in bio to apply!
This work is funded in part by the Jerome foundation.
#jeromefoundation#jeromefoundationgrantee
ICYMI: Earlier this month, the Freedom Reads team traveled to Minnesota for leg two of the #InsideLiteraryPrize tour 📚
The team had in-depth conversations with Inside Literary Prize (ILP) judges about the four books shortlisted for the inaugural Prize, and brought literary readings from acclaimed poets Randall Horton and Douglas Kearney to wider audiences within the prisons.
The final leg of the ILP tour kicks off next week in Missouri and North Carolina ✨
