About this Event
Join Shout Mouse Press at Planet Word in celebration of the highly anticipated book launch of Stubborn Roots: Poems to Grow a Better World . This bold new collection of poetry from Shout Mouse Press illuminates today’s activist experience through the poetry and essays of our most vital and essential youth. Stubborn Roots was created in partnership with Split This Rock.
Nationally and internationally acclaimed poet, educator and organizer Crystal Valentine will be our guest poet. Valentine will welcome this book into the world with a dynamic group of youth authors who will perform readings of their work from the book. Music provided by DJ Franky J.
The program will run from 6:30-8:00pm.
About the book: Stubborn Roots brings together the work of 18 young writers of color who plant their resistance in the soil of our uncertain future, with a foreword by Camonghne Felix. The book has earned a starred review in School Library Journal, which calls it "simply exceptional." The youth authors tackle disparities across lines of gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, ableism and fatphobia, immigration and the environment, and more. Their poems are accompanied by portraits of each poet (by cover artist Sobia Ahmad) along with first-person essays on what liberation means to them.
Anticipation for the book getting the best of you? We got you covered! Each RSVP includes the option to pre-order the book as an add-on, so be sure to reserve a spot (and your book) asap!
We are immensely grateful to our sponsors of this event: Artemis Ward and Planet Word.
Crystal Valentine is a nationally and internationally acclaimed poet, educator and organizer. A former New York City Youth Poet Laureate and two-time winner of the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational, Crystal has been offered fellowships from Callaloo, Tin House, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences, The Boston Foundation and Cave Canem. She is the winner of Palette Poetry’s 2021 Emerging Poet Prize, selected by Kelli Russell Agodon, and her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Muzzle Magazine, TriQuarterly Magazine, and elsewhere. She received an MFA from New York University. Originally hailing from the Bronx, Crystal now resides in Boston where she serves as the Director of Programming for Mass Poetry and co-host of Just Be(loved): Your Neighborhood Poetry Slam and Open Mic. When she isn’t writing or agonizing over line breaks, you can find her watching anime and dreaming.
DJ Franky J is a native Washingtonian. She has been a DJ for almost six years now. She’s had the opportunity to spin at places such as the Kennedy Center, Dirty Goose, Eaton Hotel, Fillmore Silver Spring, and March for Moms, to name a few.
This program is developed in partnership with Planet Word. For questions or concerns regarding needs, please contact [email protected]
Event venue & nearby stays
Planet Word, K Street Northwest, Washington, United States
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