About this Event
Join us at Village Well Books & Coffee for the launch of Barbara Fant's newest poetry collection, Joy in the Belly of a Riot!
Barbara will be joined by an all-star group of poets and authors to read from this life-affirming collection about survival and the divine.
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About the book:
The acclaimed poetic force celebrates the practice of poetry as healing and prayer in this vital, life-affirming collection about surviving the void and touching the divine—the second book in a creative collaboration between Amistad and Moore Black Press.
At age fifteen, Barbara Fant tragically lost her mother, and her world was suddenly upended. “I became an angry teenager. I was mad at the world.,” she recalls. “I even stopped praying, but I began to write. Poetry became my way of communication, my way of processing . . . it became my way to pray.”
Rebirth, renewal, and healing are the heart of Joy in the Belly of a Riot. Fant’s monumental collection is a continuation of her lifelong project of using poetry as prayer; this is healing-informed poetry to restore herself, her community, and the world. Exquisitely lyrical and boldly resonant, Fant’s poems excavate the nightmares of a childhood marked by poverty, violence, racism, and the loss of countless loved ones. Suffering seemed endemic to neighborhoods like hers, and yet, in Fant’s own words, “I keep trying to write about the trauma, but the joy won’t let me.”
Steeped in a rich Black Christian tradition and drawing on Scripture for artistic inspiration, Fant’s verse offers solace and guidance for all, from the devout to the skeptical. In these poems Fant demands that we see her, and her community, throug more than our grief. As she closes this profound collection, Fant gently preaches that we choose life and reminds us that “wholeness is our birthright.”
Joy in the Belly of a Riot is a healing balm in times of sustained uncertainty and a rock upon which we can build and sustain a foundation of joy. Fant’s essential message demands to be heard, now more than ever.
About the participants:
Barbara Fant is an acclaimed poet who has been writing and performing for over fifteen years. She has competed in nine National Poetry Slam competitions and placed 8th out of 96 poets in the 2017 Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the author of two poetry collections: Paint, Inside Out (2010) from Penmanship Books and Mouths of Garden (2022) from Sundress Publications. Her work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets, Electric Literature, McNeese Review, The Ohio State University Press, Button Poetry, and Def Poetry Jam, amongst others. Additionally, she has received residencies in Havana, Cuba and Senegal, West Africa.
Natashia Deón is a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, practicing criminal attorney and author of the critically acclaimed novels, GRACE and The Perishing. GRACE was named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times and awarded Best Debut Novel by the American Library Association’s Black Caucus. A Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Nominee for Outstanding Fiction and a PEN America Fellow, Deón has also been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Prague’s Creative Writing Program, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She is a professor of creative writing at UCLA and Antioch University. Her personal essays have been featured in The New York Times, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, American Short Fiction, Buzzfeed, and other places.
bridgette bianca is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Howard University and her Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Otis College of Art & Design. bridgette bianca has performed her poetry all around Southern California. bridgette bianca’s work as a writer and an educator seeks to serve the people and moments most forget or ignore. Her first book of poetry, be/trouble, was just released by Writ Large Press in 2020. bridgette bianca also guest hosts literary events across Los Angeles and is one-half of the literary curating teams Making Room for Black Women with Sanura Williams and South Central Spits Fire with GusTavo Guerra Vasquez. When she is not sharing her poetry, she hosts two Instagram series, Young, Black, and Tenure-Track, where she documents her experiences in higher education and We Be Readin! Wednesdays, where she discusses her romance reading obsession!
Yazmin Monet Watkins is a poet, comedian, screenwriter, actress, educator, organizer, avid roller skater and adventurer. She can be seen on season two of Grand Crew and has co-developed and written pilots with Netflix and Comedy Central alongside Paul Downs, Lucia Aniello and the all Black female comedy group, Obama’s Other Daughters. She has empowered audiences at countless universities, festivals, and institutions and has had commissioned work with prestigious institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the California African American Museum, Center Theatre Group and The Lincoln Center. Her full length book of poems, A Vessel Born to Float with Andrews McMeel Publishing is available now. Watkins’ serves as the co-chair of the Arts & Culture committee for Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and her body of work weaves art and activism, exploring the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, self-love and all things Black Girl Magic. Once Beyoncé said she liked her hair.
Alyesha Wise is an award-winning, published poet, educator and speaker from Camden, N.J. Currently residing in LA, she is the Director of Programming for Street Poets, Inc., an organization mostly serving juvenile injustice-impacted youth with mentorship and arts programming. Alyesha has been featured on platforms and in publications such as OWN TV, BET, LA Times, Bustle, Afropunk, PBS, Buzzfeed and more. Other collabs include the ACLU, The Shabazz Center, The Nantucket Project, Brave New Films and the Google Interstellar Project. Ron Howard once wrote about Alyesha's work, "Very Powerful." Her collection of poetry, My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper, will be released in summer of 2025 by El Martillo Press.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Village Well Books & Coffee, 9900 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, United States
USD 0.00
