Tag Archives: Poetry

Inwood Art Works: Poetry, Prose, and Pride!

Inwood Art Works presents Poetry, Prose, and Pride!  Featuring the poetry and prose by local artists to celebrate Pride month.

Join Inwood Art Works as we celebrate Pride Month! Featuring the poetry and prose of R.M. Thomson (curator and host), Scarlet Gomez, K A L E O, and Heather Archibald. This special program takes place in our new Studio in Inwood, where we provide a safe and inclusive space to freely express ourselves, connect with others, celebrate our diverse identities, and show off our pride and works!

Followed by a limited open mic, in which the audience is invited to read a short poem or story on stage! (3 to 4 minutes per reader, signup sheet will be at the welcome table, first-come, first-served.)

Attend to observe and enjoy, and/or to participate! Drinks and merchandise are also available for purchase in our studio.

All are welcome – LGBTQIA+ and allies alike! Family-friendly, for all ages!

7:00 PM – Doors open
7:30 PM – Show begins
9:00 PM – End of show

Admission/suggestion donation: $10 (online or at the door)

We will not deny entry no matter how much you can afford to pay! Your contribution benefits Inwood Art Works and helps us cover the costs of this event. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to create and curate professional performing and visual arts in Upper Manhattan. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

Inwood Library: Poetry + Sip: Caribbean American Heritage Month

Join us to celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month!  This event will take place in person at Inwood Library.

You can select your favorite poem(s) from a beloved Caribbean poet to read aloud, and/or read your own material.

There will also be a self-serve station for hot chocolate and tea.

You can check out the nypl.org website for beautiful poetry recommendations.

In-Person Event.  Open to Adults 18+
No Registration Required.

Word Up: Creative Stillness: A Collective Reading on Memory, Voice, and Creative Renewal

Join us at Word Up for a celebratory reading and panel conversation for Creative Stillness Anthology, a collective work of poetry and essays honoring the spaces where creativity is shaped, restored, and reclaimed, curated by Dhayana Alejandrina.

Organized into four sections—The Weaving, The Centering, The Offering, and The Surrendering—the anthology moves through the rhythms of the creative life, exploring cultural memory, identity, grief and joy, mental health, and artistic devotion. Rooted in the belief that creative stillness is not the absence of movement but intentional presence, the collection reframes “writer’s block” as a necessary balance between output and nourishment.

Featured contributors will be joined by Dhayana Alejandrina, poet and curator of Creative Stillness, founder of The Creative Writing Hour, for a collective conversation reflecting on language, community-rooted storytelling, and how rest and lived experience shape artistic expression.

The evening includes brief readings, moderated dialogue with Angela Abreu, and audience Q&A.

Panelists include

  • Sabrina Scanlan
  • Goldn.Light
  • Ms. Jenn
  • Mars Santi
  • SheaSpeaks
  • Eunice Louis-Jacques
  • Veronica Polanco

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 30 max attendees. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees for this event are encouraged to wear a mask.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (& 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th  St.

This event is also sponsored by Dominican Writers Association, The Creative Writing Hour, Gatekeeper Press, Silk & Sugar, and Ocao.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Creative Stillness is a collective anthology of poetry and short stories that honors the spaces where creativity is shaped, restored, and reclaimed. Organized into four sections—The Weaving, The Centering, The Offering, and The Surrendering—the collection moves through the natural rhythms of the creative life, exploring cultural memory, identity, grief and joy, mental health, healing, and artistic devotion. Interwoven journaling prompts that invite readers to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own creative voice. Intimate yet expansive, this anthology serves as both a literary offering and a companion, reminding readers that rest can be generative, stillness can be transformative, and meaning can take root when we slow down enough to listen.

Word Up Recirculation: Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco’s HONORING SAPPHO & SAPPHO EN SANTO DOMINGO

Word Up welcomes Jacqueline Jimenez Polanco to celebrate the launch of Honoring Sappho: A Lesbian Poetry book and Sappho en Santo Domingo: Un poemario lésbico.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT HONORING SAPPHO

This poetry book compiles original poems written by the author, Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco, and her personal creative expansion of several Sappho’s fragments. The book has been written to honor Sappho and express the author’s admiration for Sappho’s extraordinary life during which she nurtured a genuine lesbian romance with Atthis and built a diverse lesbian community with women she mentored to write and sing poetry for love, leisure, companionship, support, and visibility. This book is a tribute to Sappho’s rich and unique poetic work and a token of gratitude to the first and grand lesbian Muse in the history of humanity.

SOBRE SAPPHO EN SANTO DOMINGO

He conversado en sueños con Sappho. Ella me cuenta los desafíos de su relación con Atthis, sus proezas para verla y estar juntas, sus anhelos no realizados, las lágrimas derramadas y la alegría de vivir felices en Santo Domingo luego de tanto pesar. De esa conversación nace mi inspiración para este libro de poesía lésbica que escribo con gran emoción en honor a Sappho, la gran Musa lésbica de la historia de la humanidad. En este poemario, la lectora se deleitará con una prosa cotidiana de una estética excelsa sobre la isla caribeña, su gente, su arte, sus costumbres, el erotismo lésbico y una reflexión profunda sobre tradiciones que limitan el lesbianismo en su más auténtica expresión.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Jiménez Polanco is Associate Professor of Sociology at Bronx Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She holds a Ph.D. in political science and sociology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid with a concentration in political changes in contemporary democracies. Dr. Jiménez Polanco is the author of Los partidos políticos en la República Dominicana: Actividad electoral y desarrollo organizativo and Corrupción y cartelización de la política en la República Dominicana and co-editor of Dominican Politics in the Twenty First Century: Continuity and Change. She was granted a PSC-CUNY Award in 2023.

Bloom Readings: An Autumnal Poetry Reading

Bloom Readings is thrilled to present three excellent poets who will share the bill in The Lounge at Hudson View Gardens, on Sunday, Nov. 2nd at 6 pm.  Come hear Rebecca Keith, Anthony Cappo and Kristina Andersson Bicher read from their current work.  And afterwards, over wine and cheese, all three will have their published work for sale and would be happy to sign your copy.    The Lounge is located in Washington Heights near Bennett Park, just west of the intersection of Pinehurst Ave. and 183rd Street.  Admission is $10.

Bloom Readings is grateful for the on-going support of Poets & Writers through public funding from the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.