Winter in America: (Still

Winter in America (Still) is a poetry project amplifying voices that explore the nation’s challenges and shared humanity. Artists respond to the political crisis in the United States.

Featuring work connected to the anthology Winter in America (Again, this program explores themes of justice, resilience, and collective care. Through poetry and live performance, the artists invite us to sit with where we are and consider what it means to move forward together.

The afternoon will feature readings by Kim D. Brandon, Roxi Power, Paul E. Nelson, and Katie Sarah Zale, along with live music and space for community reflection and conversation.

Part of our Sunday Platform series, this event will be held in person with a hybrid option available for those who RSVP.

Kim D. Brandon is a poet, novelist, artist, activist, and storyteller. A proud mother and lifelong New Yorker, she writes and performs inspirational and cultural stories that uplift and inspire. Her work has appeared in anthologies, stage productions, online journals, andpublic readings. She is a 2021 Brooklyn Poets’ Poet of the Week, a VONA alum, and her poem Love On The Front Line was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021. Kim is the founder of Wild Honey Writers Collective and is deeply involved in writing communities that center women of color and justice-driven storytelling. Follow her at Kimbrandon.com.

Roxi Power is a poet, performer, and publisher whose book, The Songs that Objects Would Sing was published in 2023. She founded the trans-genre anthology series, Viz. Inter-Arts where she teaches at University of California, Santa Cruz; she podcasts and organizes poetry events for The Hive Poetry Collective whose mission is to talk about all kinds of poetry by all kinds of people. Power received an AWP Intro Award for her poetry and has been published in American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Puerto del Sol, Seneca Review, Axon, etc. In the spirit of Open Field Poetics and Buddhist notions of emptiness, she works toward an open ethos in her work as an anthologist, welcoming work from different poetic “tribes.” As a Bay area poet, her work is inspired by experimental feminist poetics and its tradition of working across genres. She co-founded “Neo-Benshi” (Live Film Narration) in San Francisco and continues to perform it nationally.

Paul E. Nelson is is a poet/interviewer/bioregionalist based in Seattle (Cascadia) & studied Organic Poetry in the tradition of Robert Duncan and Denise Levertov. He has interviewed over 100 poets: Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, Nate Mackey & Brenda Hillman among them. He founded the Cascadia Poetics Lab and his latest book of poetry is DaySong Miracle (Past 62) written on September 8, 2023.

Katie Sarah Zale believes in the power of the arts to transform and heal ourselves and the world. The Weight of a Leaf (Kelsey Press, 2024), a finalist for the Arizona Poetry Award and nominee for the social critic Eric Hoffer’s book award, offers poems about “the violence of our times…[that pave] the way to resilience.” Explain the Moon to Me (Moonstone Arts, 2022) highlights “what we do to the world—and each other.” Sometimes You Do Things (Aquarius Press’ Living Detroit Series, 2013) highlights the history and rebuilding of Detroit. The Art of Folding was inspired by her travels to Israel and Palestine (2010). In a Buddhist sense, Zale believes in tradition and that the mind and heart are one. Poetry should make the reader feel and think deeper than they may wish. Poetry should challenge our vision about our place in the world.

Allia Abdullah-Matta is a poet and Professor of English at CUNY LaGuardia & The Graduate Center/Africana Studies Program. She writes about the culture and history of Black women and explores the presence of Black bodies and voices in fine art and poetry. She was the co-recipient of The Jerome Lowell DeJur Prize in Poetry (2018) from The City College of New York (CCNY). Her poetry has been published in Newtown Literary, Promethean, Marsh Hawk Review, Mom Egg ReviewVox, Global City Review, the Jam Journal Issue of Push/Pull, and Queensbound. Her chapbook(s) washed clean & blues politico (2021) were published by harlequin creature (hcx). abdullah-matta has published critical and pedagogical articles and serves on the Radical Teacher and WSQ (Women’s Studies Quarterly) editorial/advisory boards. Her chapbook blackprint was published by THRASH Press (2024).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, 269 4th Avenue, Brooklyn, United States

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