National Black Poetry Day

Learn the history of National Black Poetry Day and how Black poetry resonates in Arlington County. Be inspired by poetry readings from local Black poets. There will be an opportunity to reflect on the spoken poetry as well as Q&A with the poets. Presented in partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation Office of 55+ Programs and the Alliance for Arlington Senior Programs. Open to all ages: no 55+ Pass is required.

Register for free

 

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union, winner of the 2019 Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry.

In 2022 she was one of two state-wide winners of a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award. She is the 2020 winner of the Poetry Society of America's Robert H. Winner Memorial Award and a finalist for the PSA's George Bogin Memorial Award. She is the recipient of a 2019 Sustainable Arts grant and a Meret grant from the Freya Project.

A Cave Canem fellow, she has been awarded scholarships, residencies and fellowships to attend the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, The Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, among others. She was the HoCoPoLitSo (Howard County Poetry and Literature Society) Writer-in-Residence for 2019-2020 and an adjunct professor at George Washington University for 2019-2020. She served as the Poetry Coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis and their two children.

 

Ronald J. Smith lives in Arlington, Virginia and is an active member of the Studio Pause community. His poems have been featured in exhibits there and in the "We Are Barcoft" documentary. He was born in DC General Hospital and raised in foster homes from ages 3-18. He published his first book Transition, Thoughts, and Inspiration in 2004. 

When

Location

Walter Reed Community Center, 2909 16th St S, Arlington, VA, 22204, View Map