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How do we survive the stories that could break us — and find our separate ways to the same shore? Join poets Derrick Austin, Rebekah Denison Hewitt, and Dylan Weir as they read from and discuss their new poetry collections that explore grief, care, and the long work of staying alive to beauty.In conversation with Kabel Mishka Ligot.
For a Black, queer man so often dislocated from time and place, pleasure becomes an act of resistance—a grounding in the now. This Elegance is a love song—an offering to Black artistry, a tribute to visionary lives, and a testament to the power of beauty in even our most precarious moments. Here, artists, thinkers, and pop icons commune in a similar sacred dialogue—Kathleen Collins, André Leon Talley, Richmond Barthé, Lyle Ashton Harris, Juan de Pareja, Janelle Monáe, Symone, and others appear as guiding spirits and creative kin.
From the aches and fears of pregnancy, through the pain and relief of childbirth, to the perplexing questions and worries of parenting, Rebekah Denison Hewitt’s Creature in Bloom grapples with what it is to make a human (and to sometimes lose one), “the baby a creature / in bloom / the mother / a lotus eater.”
In Public House, Dylan Weir explores substance abuse, dependence, and recovery. Wrestling with one of the most important questions about illness and trauma: how to move forward and move on. And if such a thing is possible. While brief summaries of the books may seem dark, each ends in the same place: beauty, despite separate burdens. To put it simply, each collection is a testament to a different type of survival, mapping a path to hope and resistance despite struggle.
https://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/events/staying-alive-poetry-reading-and-discussion
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201 W Mifflin St, Madison, WI, United States, Wisconsin 53703
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