Jason Reynolds & Mahogany L. Browne: "Where the Pulitzer Prize meets the Poetry Slam"
By Her Agenda StaffFeb. 24 2018, Published 7:00 p.m. ET
DATE:
TIME: -
COST: $10
VENUE: Bowery Poetry Club
ADDRESS: 308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012, USA
Two poets take the stage together and read back and forth, poem for poem, in an ongoing poetic conversation about where poetry exists.
Jason Reynolds was tricked into being a writer. For years his aunt would only give him books for Christmas, ranging from Huck Finn, to Moby Dick. Year after year she’d disappoint him with a gift-wrapped book. He’d force a smile, and when no one was looking, Jason would toss that year’s “bad gift” on the shelf with the rest of them. Until the sixth grade, when he discovered poetry. It was then that his world was opened, and he went back and started tearing through all the dusty, stiffened books his aunt had given him, suddenly grateful for every page.
Now, after having published four critically acclaimed books and co-authored another two, Jason was proclaimed "easily one of the most promising of Young Adult novelists in the market today" by NBC. Besides collecting starred-reviews, he is a New York Times bestselling author and was awarded the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent; was a Coretta Scott King Honoree twice, made it to the Time books of the year list, won the Kirkus Award, was a National Book Award finalist, and, in 2017, was an Odyssey and a CSK Honoree, a recipient of the Schneider Middle Grade award, and was named Indies First Spokesperson of the year.
Mahogany L. Browne
The Cave Canem, Poets House & Serenbe Focus alum, is the author of several books including Redbone (nominated for NAACP Outstanding Literary Works), Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On-line, recommended by Small Press Distribution & About.com Best Poetry Books of 2010. Mahogany bridges the gap between lyrical poets and literary emcee. Browne has toured Germany, Amsterdam, England, Canada and recently Australia as 1/3 of the cultural arts exchange project Global Poetics. Her journalism work has been published in magazines Uptown, KING, XXL, The Source, Canada’s The Word and UK’s MOBO. Her poetry has been published in literary journals Pluck, Manhattanville Review, Muzzle, Union Station Mag, Literary Bohemian, Bestiary, Joint & The Feminist Wire.
Hosted by April Ranger.
"Where the Pulitzer Prize meets the Poetry Slam." Two poets take the stage together and read back and forth, poem for poem, in an ongoing poetic conversation about where poetry exists. This New York City poetry series has been running for over 10 years, presenting a pair of poets every month, one ostensibly more literary, page-oriented, or "academic," and the other more performative or "spoken word." Sometimes the poets know each other—or one regards the other as a type of mentor—but oftentimes they do not. The evening is not a competition in any way. Rather it's a conversation in verse, with the two poets alternating, reading one poem each.
