Poets & Writers Theater

In this installment of UC Berkeley’s Lunch Poems series, Aracelis Girmay begins with a reading of “Poem of Commitment” by June Jordan followed by a selection of poems from her collections The Black Maria (BOA Editions, 2016) and Green of All Heads (BOA Editions, 2025).

“Maybe he will be the boy who studies stars. / Maybe he will be (say it) / the boy on the coroner's table / splayed & spangled / by an officer's lead as if he, too, weren't made / of a trillion glorious cells & sentences. Trying to last.” Aracelis Girmay reads an excerpt from her new collection, The Black Maria (BOA Editions, 2016), at the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.

"Whole years will be spent, underneath these impossible stars / when dirt's the only animal who will sleep with you..." Aracelis Girmay reads her poem, "Kingdom Animalia," for the Page Meets Stage reading series in 2013. Her new poetry collection, The Black Maria (BOA Editions, 2016), is featured in Page One in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.