Name: Poets Respond to the 2024 Election!
Start: 2025-08-22T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-08-22T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Symposium Books

Poets Respond to the 2024 Election!

Symposium Books

Join us on August 22nd as we host poets who will be reading from the "Winter in American (Again" as a response to the 2024 election.

Join us on August 22nd at 7pm as we host poets Allia Abdullah-Matta, Judith Hoyer, and Katie Sarah Zale (as well as other poets attending via Zoom) as part of a collective reading from the anthology, Winter in America (Again. This anthology directly responds to the results of the 2024 election during a time when we're seeing rights be threatened and stripped from vulnerable communities. Copies of the anthology will be available for purchase during the event!About the book:"The highest praise I can think of is that Winter in America (Again is a much-needed update of Carolyn Forche’s classic anthology, Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness. As the title indicates, this collection assembles some of the best poets in America to respond to the election of a man who proclaimed that he would be a dictator on the first day. Clearly, along with I Am Your Retribution, his goal is to turn America white and inhospitable to anyone not to his liking. If only he had spent time acquiring knowledge to back up all the outrageous policies he proposes. A few weeks into this administration and we are way past “the heading towards a constitutional crisis,” or “on the verge of autocracy.” The saddest thing about this political nightmare is that we did it to ourselves; we committed mass political national suicide. . . . That said, it would be safe to say, the approximately 110 poets and photographers who contributed to this anthology for the ages, would agree. There are so many outstanding pieces it seems unfair to pick out any that were better than others as they all have something pertinent to say." - Misfit MagazinePoets from the United States and beyond respond to the 2024 Presidential election. These poems are rooted in a belief that the incoming administration will not relieve or heal us from our nation’s past: the destruction of the environment, the unbridled use of power, the pervasive narrative that Black lives do not matter, patriarchy, reproductive injustice for women, silent support for the US prison-industrial complex, and the lack of compassion for diverse gender identity, immigrants, the indigenous, and unsheltered populations. The editorial team worked tirelessly for six weeks to publish this anthology before the January 20, 2025 inauguration.About the poets:allia abdullah-matta is a poet and Professor of English at CUNY LaGuardia &amp; The Graduate Center/Africana Studies Program. She writes about the culture and history of Black women and explores the presence of Black bodies and voices in fine art and poetry. She was the co-recipient of The Jerome Lowell DeJur Prize in Poetry (2018) from The City College of New York (CCNY). Her poetry has been published in Newtown Literary, Promethean, Marsh Hawk Review, Mom Egg Review Vox, Global City Review, the Jam Journal Issue of Push/Pull, and Queensbound. Her chapbook(s) washed clean &amp; blues politico (2021) were published by harlequin creature (hcx). abdullah-matta has published critical and pedagogical articles and serves on the Radical Teacher and WSQ (Women’s Studies Quarterly) editorial/advisory boards. Her chapbook blackprint was published by THRASH Press (2024).Judith Hoyer's poetry collection Imagine That was published by FutureCycle Press in 2023. Her poems have appeared in journals that include CALYX Magazine, Cider Press Review, Southwest Review, Tar River Review, Atlanta Review, Moth Magazine (IRE), and the Worcester Review. Another poem is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). She and her husband split their time between Wayland, Massachusetts and Narragansett, Rhode Island.Katie Sarah Zale believes in the power of the arts to transform and heal ourselves and the world. The Weight of a Leaf (Kelsey Press, 2024), a finalist for the Arizona Poetry Award and nominee for the social critic Eric Hoffer's book award, offers poems about “the violence of our times…[that pave] the way to resilience.” Explain the Moon to Me (Moonstone Arts, 2022) highlights “what we do to the world—and each other.” Sometimes You Do Things (Aquarius Press’ Living Detroit Series, 2013) highlights the history and rebuilding of Detroit. The Art of Folding was inspired by her travels to Israel and Palestine (2010). In a Buddhist sense, Zale believes in tradition and that the mind and heart are one. Poetry should make the reader feel and think deeper than they may wish. Poetry should challenge our vision about our place in the world.

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Poets Respond to the 2024 Election!

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Poets Respond to the 2024 Election!

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