Poets & Writers Theater

“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.”

“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.

“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.”

“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.

“Poems ask you to...really think empathetically, compassionately, and deeply about things.” Aaron Coleman, whose chapbook, St. Trigger (Button Poetry, 2016), won the 2015 Button Poetry Prize, talks about his writing interests and the power of poetry as a tool that can shift everyday language and change perspectives.

“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. 

“We are human. We know this because we can look down on almost anything.” In this video animated by Andrés Fernández Cordón, Meghann Plunkett reads her poem “Human.” The video was one of the featured submissions for the inaugural Button Poetry Video Contest.

“Anything wet and eager enough to consume the skin can be called a baptism.” In this video from Button Poetry, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib reads “Ode to Prince” from his debut poetry collection, The Crown Ain’t Worth Much (Button Poetry/Exploding Pinecone Press, 2016).

“But what I really want to say is we gone fall into the night like we fell into each other and it won't hurt no more.” Mahogany L. Browne, author of the poetry collection Smudge (Button Poetry, 2016), reads “Redbone Shames the Devil” for the Button Poetry Live series in June 2016.

"Character is shy yet codependent, searching for love in all the wrong men." Poet and actress Amber Tamblyn reads "Untitled Actress" from her collection Dark Sparkler (Harper Perennial, 2015) for Button Poetry.

“The soft dark rope of prayer and dream, its weight, what I pull, and am pulled by into night...” Aaron Coleman reads “On Surrender” from his chapbook, St. Trigger (Button Poetry, 2016), which won the 2015 Button Poetry Prize. Coleman’s debut poetry collection, Threat Come Close (Four Way Books, 2018), is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“Sometimes I ask for too much just to feel my mouth overflow.” Ocean Vuong reads “Notebook Fragments” for Button Poetry at the 2016 AWP conference and book fair. Vuong, author of Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016), is featured in “Shadows of Words: Our Twelfth Annual Look at Debut Poets” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“What do I even have to leave behind? This body? I crack it open and another falls out. I’m like a Russian doll of the dead. So many eulogies, so many eulogies written at the brim of my mouth.” In this video from Button Poetry, Nkosi Nkululeko performs “Not Finished Yet” at the 2015 National Poetry Slam in Oakland.

Ross Gay reads "To the Mulberry Tree" from his poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), which is a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award.

In a video shared by Button Poetry, Nate Marshall reads his poem "Prelude (R.I.P.)" at the Fox Egg Gallery in Minneapolis. Marshall is featured in "Winners on Winning (and Losing)" in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"Your neck is a whistling firework singing to the light of me. I am only amplifying sound." Spoken word poet Edwin Bodney reads his poem "Good Morning" in this video performance from Button Poetry.

"It's not about whether or not the shooter is racist. It's about how poor black boys are treated as problems well before we are treated as people." Award-winning slam poet Javon Johnson performs a personal and impassioned poem at the 2013 National Poetry Slam semifinals in Boston.