Come celebrate the Brooklyn debut of the extraordinary Makanda Project, a 13-piece ensemble that has become an important part of the Boston jazz scene. Led by pianist, bandleader and arranger, John Kordalewski, the Makanda Project explores and celebrates the richness of the unrecorded music of multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator Dr. Makanda Ken McIntyre.

Jacqueline Johnson is a multi-disciplined artist creating in both poetry, fiction writing and fiber arts. She is the author of A Woman's Season, a finalist on Main Street Rag and A Gathering of Mother Tongues, published by White Pine Press and is the winner of the Third Annual White Pine Press Poetry Award.

We are thrilled to host a live and live-streamed CELEBRATION of our anthology - At the Crossroads: the One Breath Rising Anthology of Poetry and Prose featuring the Jay Rodriguez Trio, and poets Cheryl Boyce TaylorRobert Gibbons, Angela Lockhart-Aronoff and Mervyn Taylor. Don’t miss it!

Caits Meissner is a poly-creative writer, artist and cultural worker based in New York City. She is the editor of the forthcoming book The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison (Haymarket Books, January 2022), and author of the illustrated hybrid poetry book Let It Die Hungry (The Operating System, 2016).

Ahmed Abdullah – trumpet and vocals
Francisco Mora Catlett – multi-percussion
Monique Ngozi Nri – poetry and vocals
Roman Diaz – African percussion
DD Jackson – piano
Don Chapman – tenor saxophone
Radu ben Judah – bass

JOHN MURILLO is the author of the poetry collections Up Jump the Boogie, finalist for both the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Pen Open Book Award, and Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award, and finalist for the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the NAACP Image Award.

Christina Olivares is the author of Our America is Botanic (Get Fresh Books, forthcoming 2022), No Map of the Earth Includes Stars, winner of the 2014 Marsh Hawk Press Book Prize, and the chaplet, Interrupt (Belladonna* Collaborative, 2015).

WILLIE PERDOMO is the author of Smoking Lovely: The Remix (Haymarket Books, 2021), The Crazy Bunch (Penguin Random House, 2019), The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Penguin Random House, 2014), and Where a Nickel Costs of Dime (Norton, 1996). Winner of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, the New York City Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN Open Book Award,

Former Kentucky Poet Laureate, Frank X Walker is a Professor in the department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program at the University of Kentucky and the founding editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture. A Cave Canem Fellow and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of eight collections of poetry including, Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry; and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award as well as two new collections, The Affrilachian Sonnets and About Flight.

LECONTE DILL was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, California, the granddaughter of sojourners of the 2nd Wave of the Great Migration. She remains curious about sojourning, migrations, and landing and launching places and spaces. “Le Conte” literally means “The Fairy Tale,” and likewise, LeConté listens to, documents, dreams, and creates stories of reimagining.

MARIAHADESSA EKERE TALLIE is the author of the award-winning children’s book Layla’s Happiness(Enchanted Lion Books). Her work for adults includes Strut (Agape Editions), Dear Continuum: Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation (Grand Concourse Press), and Karma’s Footsteps (Flipped Eye Publishing). Tallie is the subject of the short film “I Leave My Colors Everywhere.”

DuEwa Frazier is a poet, children's author, speaker and educator. Born in Brooklyn, DuEwa has written poetry collections and stories for young readers. Her books include Goddess Under the Bridge: Poems, Alice's Musical Debut, and Check the Rhyme: An Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees (nominated for an NAACP Image Award).

We’re so lucky to present Remica Bingham-Risher, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is an alumna of Old Dominion University and Bennington College. She is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Among other journals, her work has been published in the New York Times, the Writer’s Chronicle, New Letters, Callaloo and Essence.

Robert Anthony Gibbons, a native Floridian, came to New York City in 2007 in search of his muse, Langston Hughes, and found a vibrant contemporary poetry community at the Cornelia Street Cafe, the Green Pavilion, Nomad's Choir, Brownstone Poets, Hydrogen JukeBox, Saturn Series, and Phoenix among other venues. His first book, ​Close to the Tree​, was published by Three Rooms Press in 2012. Flight , his second book was published in 2019. Robert and visual artist, Amy Williams, recently collaborated on a new series of erasure poems and artworks inspired by the words of Zora Neale Hurston's writings from the Federal Writers' Project.

Lee Odom’s instrumental spectrum includes the clarinet, alto and soprano saxophones, and flute. She is a composer, band leader, whose musical spectrum includes gospel, free improved music, jazz, R&B, and classical. Go to Bit.ly/3vnfga to register.

Angela Lockhart-Aronoff began writing at the age of eight. As her artistic interests grew, she earned a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Florida State University and later a master’s in educational theatre from New York University

We are proud to present critically acclaimed bassist, Christopher Dean Sullivan . Sullivan has worked throughout the US and the world. His wide range includes jazz traditional art forms to open freestyle expressions, as well as Latin jazz, poetry/spoken word, contemporary and commercial music.

Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet and workshop facilitator. A recipient of the 2015 Barnes and Noble Writers For Writers Award, she is the founder and curator of Calypso Muse and the Glitter Pomegranate Performance Series.Cheryl earned her MFA in Poetry from Stonecoast: The University of Southern Maine. She is the author of three collections of poetry: Raw Air, Night When Moon Follows, and Convincing the Body.

Ras Moshe Burnett is a Brooklyn-born saxophonist/composer/educator, hailing from a musical family. Ras commenced performing with his own units in 1987 and played in roots reggae bands parallel with his own jazz ensembles. He is the founder of the "Music Now" series, a monthly presentation of new music and free jazz that began in 1999 at The Brecht Forum and is currently continuing at Scholes Street Studio and The Brooklyn Commons.

Larry Roland, poet, bassist, composer, educator, and music producer uses Spoken Word and improvisational music to educate the listener. His work reflects the joy, sorrow, and day-to-day circumstances of the times in which we live.