Poets & Writers Theater

“She is told she does not belong, to go back where she came from, as if where she came from is not where she is.” In this video, Leah Anderson reads her poem “You Ask Me What I Am So You May Know How to Fear Me” at Button Poetry Live in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

“Sometimes people love us in ways we do not understand how to be loved.” In this Button Poetry video, Blythe Baird, author of the debut poetry collection, If My Body Could Speak (Button Poetry, 2019), reads her poem “An Invitation.”

“If you ask me why representation in the media is important... / I will show you a woman who learned to dance until she / felt pretty...” On NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts, Ashlee Haze reads her poem “For Colored Girls (The Missy Elliot Poem)” as part of Blood Orange’s performance of “By Ourselves” from the album Negro Swan.

“I do hope one day to be free of this body’s dry wood...” In this Button Poetry video, Kaveh Akbar, author of the poetry collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017), reads a poem that was published in Tin House’s “The Rehab Issue” in 2017.

“I want to write about tiny miracles: I woke up this morning. I woke up this morning.” George Abraham, author of the chapbook The Specimen’s Apology (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), reads his poem “Against Consolidation” at the 2017 VOX POP Poetry Slam Tournament in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“We slid pride first into his car opening the new year / the way ungraceful fingers open a gift not meant for them.” William Evans reads “New Year’s Eve Party at Eric’s House and the Black Boys Have Had Enough” from his poetry collection Still Can’t Do My Daughter’s Hair (Button Poetry, 2017) at Camp Bar in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

“I can’t remember the last time / someone commented on my sunny disposition. / That doesn’t mean I’m not trying to juice / the sun for every holy drop.” In this video, Andrea Gibson reads “Living Proof” from their poetry collection Lord of the Butterflies (Button Poetry, 2018) at the Westcott Theater in Syracuse, New York.

“Good luck implies the death of everyone who does not have it...” Jonathan Mendoza, author of the chapbook When the Crows Come (Pizza Pi Press, 2017), reads his poem “Confessions on Gratitude” in this video for Button Poetry.

“At nine years old, I transform into things I’ve never been before...” Phil Kaye, author of the collection Date & Time, forthcoming from Button Poetry in September, reads his poem “Before the Internet.”

Anne Waldman reads from the “Endtime” section of her longer poetic text at the 2017 Alternative New Year’s Day Spoken Word Performance Extravaganza at Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City. Waldman’s poetry collection Trickster Feminism (Penguin Books, 2018) is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“My family is a group of redwoods / that sought god instead of ground...” Samoan American poet William Nu’utupu Giles reads his poem “Prescribed Fire” at the 2015 National Poetry Slam. Giles won the National Underground Poetry Individual Competition in 2015, the first Pacific Islander to win the award.

“Most people have no idea that tragedy and silence often have the exact same address.” In this video, Rudy Francisco reads his poem “Complainers” from his debut poetry collection, Helium (Button Poetry, 2017), on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“I own no dog, but I am about to let go of the leash.” Shayla Lawson, author of I Think I’m Ready to See Frank Ocean (Saturnalia Books, 2018), reads her poem “Pantone 427 U” for the Spoken Series at the Pickathon music festival in Portland, Oregon.

“In place of a mother tongue, I grew a forked fin.” Franny Choi reads her poem “Split Mouth” at the 2017 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Festival. Choi is the author of the debut collection, Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), and the chapbook, Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017).

In this video, filmed by Lowe Campbell Ewald for the 2014 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Airea D. Matthews discusses her love for Detroit and reads from her poem “Wisdom.” Matthews is the author of Simulacra (Yale University Press, 2017) and is featured in “The Whole Self: Our Thirteenth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I’ve left Earth in search of darker planets, a solar system that revolves too near a black hole. I have left a patch of dirt in my place and many of you won’t know the difference...” Danez Smith reads his poem “Dear White America” at the 2014 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Festival. Smith’s second collection, Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), is longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award in poetry.

“This joke that I heard in Arabic hurts just as much in English, and French, and in any other dialect.” In this video, Emi Mahmoud reads her poem “How to Translate a Joke” for Button Poetry Live at Camp Bar in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 

In this video, Jess Arndt’s action text “Collective Body Possum” is performed by Swedish electronic music duo the Knife during their 2014 world tour. Arndt, whose debut story collection, Large Animals, was published in May by Catapult, is featured in “First Fiction 2017” in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“The things I say in my poems are things that I absolutely have to say.” Jive Poetic reads an original poem and shares his writing process for PBS NewsHour’s “Brief but Spectacular” series. 

Spoken word artist Kelly Tsai narrates her poem for this short film animated by Ryan Hartley Smith. Tsai wrote the poem in dedication to those who have served in AmeriCorps and others who have volunteered their time and energy to provide public services and community improvements.