Tuesday, May 25th 4:30 - 6 pm via Zoom

We are excited to bring together a powerful, intergenerational line-up of writers from Mississippi, Michigan, and California to celebrate the places, people and beloved communities we call home. The young leaders of Staying Power have been studying “Documentary Poetics”- the art of story-gathering, truth-telling, and capturing our communities through place-based writing.

Our featured artist, Kiese Laymon, is known for his radical honesty, vulnerability and tenderness in rendering written portraits of himself, his family and his Mississippi community- asking us to reckon with harm we’ve done as individuals and as a nation, and creating a space for us to heal and grow towards collective liberation. We will also hear from some of the most brilliant youth and adult poets in Richmond, CA and Ypsi, MI!

This event is free and open to the public (all ages) but the dialogue will be hosted by the young leaders of Staying Power and we will ask that folks over 22 just listen and make space so we can center youth voices.

Staying Power is a program of Engage @ EMU. We are grateful to RYSE Center, our partner organization in Richmond, CA, to our funders AAACF and Rackham Public Scholars, and to our co-sponsor Black Stone Bookstore & Cultural Center. We encourage you to buy Kiese’s books from https://www.blackstonebookstore.com/.

Please contact zipora.ray@gmail.com ahead of time if you have particular accessibility needs or questions.