Queer Poets of Color: Nepantla Anthology Anniversary

Come Celebrate the One-Year Anniversary of Nepantla!

Marking the one-year anniversary of Nepantla Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books, 2018), the first major literary anthology of its kind, Wendy’s Subway and Nepantla editor Christopher Soto present an event that considers forms of mentorship, kinship, and lineage. The anthology gathers queer poets of color throughout U.S. history and their contemporaries today. Contributors to the anthology Amber Atiya, Denice Frohman, t’ai freedom ford, and Donika Kelly, share work by a queer poet of color they consider a literary mentor or interlocutor, followed by a reading of their own writing. Readings are followed by a conversation with editor Christopher Soto.

Queer Poets of Color: Nepantla Anthology Anniversary is organized with Wendy’s Subway as part of The Quick and the Dead, a yearlong, multi-phase project that highlights the life, work, and legacy of a deceased writer by bridging their work to that of contemporary practitioners. In its inaugural year, the program focuses on the life and work of poet, educator, and activist, Audre Lorde (1934-1992). Beginning with a six-month reading and discussion group in all 2018 facilitated by OlaRonke Akinmowo of The Free Black Women’s Library, the Quick and the Dead continues through public programming in Spring 2019. The Quick and the Dead seeks to mobilize the creative and pedagogical potential of focused engagement with a single author through sustained reflection across a variety of public events and opportunities for cross-disciplinary encounters.