https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84308329737?pwd=RjJUdCtJVXRySjlvMHdXakJRRzVmUT09

Meeting ID: 843 0832 9737   Passcode: 678146   Phone: 1 646 876 9923 US (New York)

Hermond Palmer is a poet, author and song writer who has performed his work at spoken-word venues in and around Harlem, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton Graduate School of Business. He has published three books of poetry; Echoes from the Quiet that I Keep, Words to Fill the Light in You, and What the Ancestors Told Me and I Decided to Listen. He has a Chapbook of Love poems entitled Aquarian Love Poems forthcoming from Moonstone Publishing in 2021 and he is currently wrapping up his first book of fiction, entitled Road Kings.

Cherise A. Pollard, Ph.D., is Professor of English and Director of the Poetry Center at West Chester University of PA.  A Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow, Pollard was awarded a grant from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her work has a in several journals including 5 AM, Affilia: The Journal of Women in Social Work, African American Review, Connotations Press, The Healing Muse, The Mom Egg, The Pittsburgh Poetry Review, PoemMemoirStory, and Rattle. Her poem, “Sugar Babe” was a Finalist for the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Outsiders, was chosen by C.M. Burroughs as the winner of the 2015 Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center.

Leena Taylor spent her formative years in northeast Philadelphia. Leena exists at the crossroads of multiple sometimes conflicting cultures. Her poetry is an expression of a women that is often overlooked in America she is black she is Muslim she is women in a place that can hardly understand the nuances of one of those identities. As a caregiver, Leena loves amplifying the voice of those othered by society and writes with the intention of giving a home to women who are often omitted from the narrative of America. Her debut chapbook is available at https://www.tohopub.com/product-page/they-shot-anyway.

Sean Hanahan, Host – Open Reading Follows