20th anniversary Voices Carry reading

I'm excited to announce the lineup for the 20th anniversary Voices Carry reading on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. at the Decatur Library.

The poets: Cecilia Woloch, Alice Lovelace, Tania Rochelle, Kodac Harrison, and Theresa Davis. I’ll be hosting and reading a few poems, too.

Please RSVP for free tickets at this link. The event will be hosted by Georgia Center for the Book and Poetry Atlanta.

Voices Carry originally began in 2004 as an event sponsored by the now-defunct Atlanta Book Festival. The organizer, the late Chante Whitley-Head, asked me to work with Poetry Atlanta to create an event in commemoration of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

That first Voices Carry – and, yes, it is named after the Til Tuesday song – was held at The Carter Center in Atlanta and moved to numerous locations around the city before finding a permanent home at the Decatur Library under the auspices of Georgia Center for the Book. Over the last two decades, we've hosted luminaries like Jericho Brown, Natasha Trethewey, Ilya Kaminksy, Katie Farris, Khadijah Queen, Patrick Donnelly, and many more. For the 20th anniversary reading, I reached out to participants of the first two readings and asked them to join us once again for what will be my last hurrah as curator of the event.

After 20 years, I think it's time to pass the reading on to a new curator as I wind down my life in poetry. In the meantime, much love and thanks to Cecilia Woloch, who has been my partner on this reading since the very beginning. She hasn't missed a single VC in 20 years and is flying in from LA for this one. 

See you Nov. 14!