Jasmin Benward joins us in Fells Point for a conversation and reading from her book CRYING IN LA: SAPPHIC LONGING IN TONGUES AND TEARS!About this Event
Registration for this event is not required; however, in the case of a full event, your registration will reserve your seat.
Join us on Thursday, June 4, in Fells Point for a conversation and reading with Jasmin Benward, author of the poetry collection Crying in LA: Sapphic Longing in Tongues and Tears! Jasmin will be in conversation with poet Jade Flower Foster.
About Crying in LA: Sapphic Longing in Tongues and Tears:
Crying in LA: Sapphic Longing in Tongues and Tears is an emboldened, Afrocentric collection ofpoetry that explores Black sapphic love, uncertainty, and loss through metaphors of shifting. Fromwarm affections (Sunny Skies), to the weight of uncertainty (Partly Cloudy), the introspection ofalmost-loves (Chance of Rain), to the cleansing mourning of heartbreak (Showers), each poempulses with radical tenderness. A pouring of cultural memory, sensuality, and the blues of Blackqueer existence, this assembly is both celebration and confession—where tongues speak acrosswaters.
Crying in LA will be available for purchase at the event!
Jasmin Benward (she/they) is a Black American multidisciplinary artist and cultural organizer whose work explores queer interiority writing across poetry, song, personal essay, screenwriting, and speculative fiction. Their practice bridges literature, music, and wellness with development from GLAAD, The Center for Cultural Power, The Vancouver International Film Festival, Women in Film, Unlock Her Potential, Keychange U.S. and growing.
Their personal essays have been featured in Healthline Magazine and Refinery29, among other publications, extending their voice into cultural criticism, intimacy, and lived experience.
Jasmin is the author of debut poetry collection Crying in LA: Sapphic Longing in Tongues and Tears (Tehom Center Publishing, June 2025), with additional forthcoming poetry in Sinister Wisdom (2028) that includes a two-piece feature titled, “Uptown Hooligan.” They recently presented at an offsite AWP reading, The Rumpus Revel: Feminist as Fuck! in Baltimore, invited by Roxane Gay.
Founder of the artful collective Create the Room and aboard member of Gender Amplified, Jasmin is also affiliated with Madden Flow Entertainment, WVZ MFG Publishing Co., and Vision Play Entertainment, working across A&R, sync, and music supervision. They are currently a Poetry and Fiction Fellow with at Louis Place, an awardee of the Community Project Grant from the NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, and a member of The Recording Academy’s 2025 new voting class.
Jade Flower Foster – is a poet and Spirit-forward storyteller committed to using language to repair church hurt for the LGBTQ+ community. She’s the Gotham award winning writer and creator of webseries, 195 Lewis, and producer of Black Lesbian poetry tour and subsequent film, The Revival. She’s been featured in VICE, Essence Magazine and was named one of Go Magazine’s 100 Lesbians to Watch. www.jadeflowerfoster.com
IG: jadeflowerfoster
Event Venue
Greedy Reads, 1744 Aliceanna Street, Baltimore, United States
USD 0.00
