Porsha Olayiwola

BLACK: writer. performer. futurist

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Home on Our Back: A Laureate’s Reading on the Poetics of Diaspora

  • Free Public Library of Phildelphia (map)

A bi-city poetry collaboration between Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and Philadelphia Poet Laureate Raquel Salas Rivera, which explores how migrations have shaped both East Coast cities. From North to South, from enslavement to freedom, across borders, from colony to the heart of the empire, migration, displacement and a shifting idea of home have been foundational to the formation of communities in major cities on the East Coast. Untangling the myth that founding cities have represented, these Poet Laureates have invited six poets (three from each city) to write from and to their cities and these histories of migration. These poets will perform in Boston and Philly and invite audiences to participate in the creation of new narratives built on solidarity and acknowledging the generative power of writing our own futures.

Earlier Event: September 12
Reading w/ Nick Flynn
Later Event: November 18
i shimmer sometimes, too BOOK RELEASE