Visiting Writer Series: Performance with George Abraham (Read More)
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for an evening with George Abraham, a Palestinian American poet and writer. The event starts at 7 p.m. with local openers: Rachel Luck, Angélica Perez, and Shukura Huggins. There is a suggested donation of $10 for the event, but no one will be turned away. George Abraham (they/he/هو) is a Palestinian American poet, performance artist, and writer from Jacksonville, FL. Their debut poetry collection Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020) won the Arab American Book Award and the Big Other Book Award in Poetry, and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry. He is also the author of the chapbooks al youm (The Atlas Review, 2017), and the specimen's apology (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019). He is a board member for the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI), a recipient of fellowships from Kundiman, The Arab American National Museum, The Boston Foundation, the National Performance Network, and the MAP Fund, and more. Their writing has appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Nation, The American Poetry Review, Guernica, The Baffler, The Paris Review, Mizna, and many other journals and anthologies. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard University, Abraham has taught at Emerson College, and is currently based in Chicago, IL, where he is a Litowitz MFA+MA student in Poetry at Northwestern University. He is currently Executive Editor of the Whiting Award winning journal Mizna. Their collaborations include co-editing a Palestinian poetry anthology with Noor Hindi (Haymarket Books, 2025), and a performance art project titled EVE with Fargo Tbakhi.
The Nebraska-based writers and spoken word artists Ben Wenzl, Jewel Rodgers, and Rachel Luck will open for GARY SOTO. Soto will give a reading before joining NWC Co-Executive Director, Gina Tranisi, in conversation about his creative practice, his community, and his place in the creative canon. Gary Soto is known for a body of work that deals with the realities of growing up in Mexican American communities. In poems, novels, short stories, plays and over two dozen books for young people, Soto recreates the world of the barrio, the urban, Spanish-speaking neighborhood where he was raised, bringing the sights, sounds and smells vividly to life within the pages of his books. Soto’s poetry and prose focus on everyday experiences while evoking the harsh forces that often shape life for Chicanos, including racism, poverty, and crime. (Excerpt taken from the Poetry Foundation.) Gary Soto’s poetry reading is part of the Touring Artist Series of the All Writes Reserved Youth Poetry Festival. Ticket required.
