About this Event
Grownfolk Blues: a musical in poems is a powerful cross-genre experiment blending narrative verse with musical theater in a dynamic score that transcends the traditional bounds of a poetry collection. Inspired by the queer Southern blues artists of the 1920s and 30s, the narrative follows a character named You, a queer Black woman who is frequently crushed beneath the weight of societal demands. You struggles against the pains of coming into adulthood, of finding love and meaning in life.
Jae Nichelle (she/her) is a poet, performer, screenwriter, and the author of God Themselves (Andrews McMeel, 2023) and the chapbook The Porch (As Sanctuary) (YesYes Books, 2019).
A 2026 Oregon Literary Fellow and a graduate fellow of The Watering Hole, Jae was a finalist for a 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship and won the inaugural John Lewis Writing Award in poetry from the Georgia Writers Association. Her work has been featured by Write About Now and Button Poetry. The current associate editor of Torch Magazine, she believes in all of our collective ability to contribute to radical change.
Jae is celebrating the release of her 2nd full-length collection, GROWNFOLK BLUES, in conversation with newly local literary icon KB Brookins. The pair will get into the nitty gritty of writing across genres, publishing, and persisting.
This event is free and open to the public.
Event venue & nearby stays
Nomadic Bookshop, 326 23rd Street, Oakland, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.