A Celebration of Art, Voice and Imagination, June 6

A Celebration of Art, Voice and Imagination: Poetry Reading and Salon
Featuring Steven Leyva and Kwame R. Vanderhorst
Sunday, June 6 at 2 p.m.
(Rain date Sat June 12 at 2 p.m.)
Outdoors, socially-distanced, masks required

Unexpected Stage is thrilled to join prize winning poet Steven Leyva and noted speaker Kwame Vanderhorst for a perceptive poetry reading and invigorating salon that will dive into a revelatory look at race and class, including the ways in which African American culture has persevered in the face of adversity. You will not want to miss both thinkers together for the first time.

Drawing heat and music (and luscious food) from a New Orleans and Houston childhood, Steven Leyva‘s poetry reveals a sensibility forged by a growing awareness of race and class: child’s joy and bafflement, a black Baltimore father’s worry. Gorgeous poems will sweep the listeners into a parade, of memory, sensation, rhythm and protest.

Steven Leyva’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous publications, including Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House.

Speaker Kwame R. Vanderhorst addresses language and race in this salon, “THEY Know What We Sayin”: Black folk are labeled “verbally deficient” because we use Black vernacular, so-called “Ebonics.” THEY make false judgments and assumptions, see as less competent, and even deny opportunities to Blacks even though THEY Know What We Sayin’. Wanna know why THEY do that?

Kwame R. Vanderhorst is a native of Youngstown, Ohio. Mr. Vanderhorst is Co-Founder of Prepare Our Youth, Inc. Prepare Our Youth is a nonprofit organization servicing children, youth, and families, based in Washington, DC.