Thursday, September 23, 5:30 pm, Central 6:30 pm, Eastern
Join us as the Poet Laureate of San Francisco, Tongo Eisen-Martin, and the Poet Laureate of Kentucky, Crystal Wilkinson, share poetry from their new releases and shed light on the important roles that poets can play in the civic life of their communities. The poets will be in conversation with Twin Cities poet Michael Kleber-Diggs.
In Blood on the Fog (City Lights), Tongo Eisen-Martin explores themes of love and loss, family and faith, refracted through the lens of Black experience. These poems honor intellectual tradition and ancestral knowledge while blazing an entirely new path, recording and replaying the poet’s sensory travels through America, from its packed metropolises to desolate anytowns. Packed with politically astute and clear-eyed takes on race and class, and filled with wisdom and great humanity, these poems perform mind-bending leaps and wander down back alleys to arrive at their moment of ultimate truth.
In Perfect Black (University Press of Kentucky), Crystal Wilkinson combines deep love for her country roots with a passion for language and storytelling to craft a compelling collection about Black girlhood, racism, and political awareness. Imbued with tenderness and insightful imagery of growing up in the South, the poet muses on such topics as lost fathers, religion, motherhood, mental illness, sexual assault, and the politics of her Black body, all while evoking ghosts and ancestors as companions and guides, demonstrating Wilkinson’s full engagement with the land and its people. It is a captivating conversation about life, love, loss, and pain, interwoven with striking illustrations by her longtime partner Ronald Davis.
Free to attend, registration required. We hope to “see” you there!
Copies of the books, which will include bookplates SIGNED by the authors, can be purchased in advance using the buttons below! Books are provided by Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis; purchasing books here helps support them AND Rain Taxi’s Twin Cities Book Festival—thank you!
