Listen to and engage with honored guest Yalie Saweda Kamara, current Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate. Following a reading of her collection of poetry--both published and soon-to-be published--Yalie will lead participants in Synergies of People & Place: A Writing Workshop. Who were we, who are we, and who will we be by virtue of movement? Through discussion and examinations of poetry, moving and still images, and music, this generative writing workshop considers the ways in which migration and location inform our identities and how our presences conversely impact the spaces we frequent, encounter, or inhabit.

In-Person on Saturday, February 3:

         10-11:30am      - Reading and Q&A with Book Signing (FREE, Registration Required)
11:30am-12pm - Intermission
12-1:30pm        - Workshop ($25 -- Limited Capacity, Registration Required)

REGISTRATION REQUIRED, EVEN IF ONLY ATTENDING THE FREE READING
Open to All Genders 18+
Masks available at the event

Support for this program is made possible by a grant from the Harris Family Fund.

Yalie Saweda Kamara is a Sierra Leonean-American writer, educator, and researcher from Oakland, California. Kamara is the 2022-2023 Cincinnati and Mercantile Library Poet Laureate (2-year term) and a 2023 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. She is the author of the debut full-length collection Besaydoo (Milkweed Editions, 2024), winner of the 2022-2023 Jake Adam York Prize. Kamara earned a PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature from the University of Cincinnati. She is an assistant professor of English at Xavier University and resides in Cincinnati. For more please visit: www.yaylala.com.

(Photo Credit: JP Leong)