Between the Lines: Vernacular Poetry as Collective Memory Workshop

5:30-6:00 pm: Book Talk

6:30-7:00 pm: Workshop*

This hands-on poetry-writing workshop will have attendees engaging in dialogue with our regional poet-ancestors. We will respond to poems from Chicory, a Black grassroots poetry magazine published in Baltimore from 1966-1983, by remixing them into new poetry through erasure and blackout methods.

*Registration is required to attend the workshop due to limited capacity. Registration is not necessary for book talk attendees.

Mary Rizzo is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Newark. She works at the intersection of inclusive public history, digital humanities, urban studies, and 20th century U.S. cultural history. She is a co-founder of the Chicory Revitalization Project, which uses the black community poetry magazine Chicory to spur intergenerational dialogue on place and social justice. In 2026, University of Iowa Press published Baltimore’s Black Arts Then & Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project, written by her and several collaborators. She is also the author of Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and The Wire (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) and Class Acts: Young Men and the Rise of Lifestyle (University of Nevada Press, 2015).

For accommodations or questions, email [email protected]

Info: No registration required

Info: Registration required

Event venue & nearby stays

Atrium, Battelle-Tompkins Memorial Building, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, United States

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