Poetry reading: “Celebrating Black Writing in Cleveland”

The Great Lakes African American Writers Conference and Writers House will co-sponsor a virtual poetry reading featuring writers Michelle R. Smith and Mary E. Weems Friday, Oct. 2, at 3 p.m. EDT.

Michelle R. Smith is a writer, educator and cultural facilitator. Her work has been published in poemmemoirstory; Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism; Howl, 2016! Poems, Rants, and Essays on the Election; The Normal School; and Gasconade Review. Her second collection of poetry, The Vagina Analogues, was self-published this month.

Mary E. Weems is a poet, playwright, author, performer, imagination-intellect theorist and social/cultural foundations scholar. Weems is the author of 13 books, including Blackeyed: Plays and Monologues (Sense Publishing, 2015), Writings of Healing and Resistance: Empathy and the Imagination-Intellect (Peter Lang, 2012), Public Education and the Imagination Intellect: I Speak from the Wound in my Mouth (Peter Lang, 2003), five chapbooks—most notably white (Wick Chapbook)—and numerous poems, articles and book chapters. Weems was awarded the 2015 Cleveland Arts Prize Emerging Artist’s Award for her full-length drama MEAT.

Access the Zoom link for the event.