Live Poetry: Anne Kaier, Massimo Lavelle, and Aaren Perry

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 – 7pm

Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street

Anne Kaier a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellow and has served on a Fulbright screening committee for creative writers.  Her poetry collection, How Can I Say It Was Not Enough? won the Propel Poetry Award and was published by Nine Mile Press and the University of Syracuse in Spring 2025. Her essays have appeared widely in venues such as The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, 1966 journal, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the anthology About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of The New York Times for which she appeared on NPR’s Radio Times. “Maple Lane” was mentioned on the list of notables in an edition of Best American Essays.

Massimo Lavelle is a spoken word poet. He performs throughout Philadelphia and has also featured at Yale University African American Studies Department and O’bheal in Ireland. He has hosted different events in the city and has collaborated with musicians, dancers and videographers on a diverse range of projects. He loves seeing people sharing positive and creative work and hopes his poetry encourages that.

Aaren Perry’s most recent book Shipping and Receiving is published by Moonstone. Bilingual with an MFA from Vermont College, Perry is a grant writer and editor. He edited a forthcoming collection of new poems by Lamont B. Steptoe; co-edited with James Villarreal, Under Lock and Key: 100 Poems From Death Row, by Anthony Reid; and co-edited The Art Of Inclusion with John Lavin and Eleanor Wilner.

Anne-Adele Wight Host, Open Reading Follows