News
Past Events
10/5: 4 – 5 pm. Decatur Book Festival: (Live) Reading
Emory Poetry Stage, Decatur, GA. Signing follows.
10/25: 7 pm PT/ 10 pm ET. (Virtual) El Gigante Poetry Series: Reading
11/17: 5 – 7 pm. (Live) Wild Indigo Poetry Series: Reading
w/Nikki Herd, New American Cider, 6350 Germantown Ave. Phila. PA.
11/18: 5:30 pm. (Live) Monday Poets Celebration Series: Reading
w/Mabel Lee. Free Library of Phila., Donatucci Branch
1935 W. Shunk St., Phila. PA.
https://libwww.freelibrary.org/programs/monday-poets/
NEW BOOK NEWS: MIGRATION LETTERS GETS THE YES
Short-listed for the Tenth Gate Prize from Word Works Press
Forthcoming in 2023 from Beacon Press
Great Migration Pentimento, #3
When your mother waved you off to college, she shrunk back
to Saturday nights in Atlantic City. Chicken Bone
Beach, heels in hand. Traveling to her sisters’
in Chester, the Bronx. Whooping at Woodside
Park. Peg Leg Bates’s place, upstate
New York. Southside Chicago,
maid-of-honoring her best girl. Uniformed
in Margate, small white hands, right
and left, clutching hers. Troop train
from Georgia, 1943. So few places summed
her up, classroom to bus doors
to vacuum. No curlicued claim to upward
bound credits. No classes. No dates
with Memphis lawyers. Her diploma pointed
outward: shorthand—maybe. Receptionist
absolutely — “just not quite right” for her.
Understudy for downtown retail, she sparkled
counters overmuch. Jitterbugged
up to the Sabbath day of praise.
Circulator of the borrowed bassinet,
snowsuit, sandbox. Cupfuls
of Clorox. Spotty clerical work. Never
permitted to shine without grope
or glare. Your witness. Her rally: that smile,
enough to swing Avon. Make food.
Make room. Mark homework.
