Wednesday August 20, 2025  7pm- LIVE

Live at Fergie’s Pub, 1214 Sansom Street

Sydney Coffin is halfway done an MFA with NYU in Paris, and taught poetry, English, journalism, wrestling and experiential arts in Philadelphia’s public schools for 20 years, English Language Learning at Job Corps, and recently became the night manager of facilities for the Fleisher Memorial Art School on Catherine Street in the Italian Market area; he has been published by Moonstone Press, Mad House Press, Yale University Press, Lobo Press, and a few other locations.

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education. She seeks out communities of care and craft and is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. She is a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant.

Genevieve Rand is a variety artist whose work blends poetry, stand-up, song, and immersive art into performances that feel like sacred chaos. Her debut one-woman show iParty—part ceremony, part spectacle—will premiere this September at Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Tickets are on sale now, and this is your official invitation to enter the iParty portal.

Sean Hanrahan Host – Open Reading Follows