For this April 5th gathering, we will be reading "My First Memory (of Librarians)" by Nikki Giovanni. The theme of this month’s poems is Our Stories, Our Narrative. Yalie Saweda Kamara selected this poem by award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni. This poem is about remembering your first time at a library. Yalie Saweda Kamara will present the poem and Samantha Weiss will lead a meditation.

Mindful Poetry Moments–a collaboration incubated with The On Being Project, and now supported by The Well and partners The Hive, The Mercantile Library, WordPlay, and Puffin Foundation West–offers a chance to pause and reflect on poetry’s ability to encounter ourselves, the world, and the mystery of each other.

During April, we meet weekly to consider a poem together and receive guidance and a prompt for writing time together. We then share the poems with one another and ask for submissions for our fourth annual Mindful Poetry Moment publication.

NOTE: We are meeting at 4 pm for April - a time chosen to accommodate more students.

This April's poems have been selected by Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate, Yalie Saweda Kamara and Cincinnati's Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, Rimel Kamran.

Come with a pen, paper, and an open heart. And keep in mind that this is a family-friendly offering. Please arrive on time. We will hold a 10-minute grace period, if you arrive later than that time, we apologize but you won't be able to get in. we create a very intentional beginning experience for our guests. If you miss it, we will share the recorded session and have more events to join.