Witches & Warriors Reading with Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Cynthia Dewi Oka

This reading, followed by a book signing, will be the culmination of the inaugural “Witches and Warriors” retreat for BIPOC poets, organizers, and movement builders. As two leading voices in the space where literature and activism meet, Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Cynthia Dewi Oka bring together radical politics and innovative poetics to create new possibilities in feminism, queer liberation, racial justice, and climate justice. In this time of rage and despair, this evening promises inspiration, renewal, and solidarity in the continued work for justice.

This event will take place outdoors at the Watershed Center. Copies of books by both authors will be available for purchase at the event from Oblong Books. Seating will be limited, so please feel free to bring picnic blankets and lawn chairs, as well as bug spray, water bottles, and whatever you may need to be comfortable.

The reading is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so please RSVP!

Parking: Please park along Kaye Road, walk toward the Watershed Center sign, and follow signs to the event.

Accessibility: Folks who need to park closer can drive past the sign into the Watershed Center and park along the main driveway or in the lot to the right. The event will take place in a grass field, and the pathway to the event location is unpaved with a slight decline.

COVID Safety: This event will be held outdoors. Masks are not required for attendees who are fully vaccinated, except when entering the Main House to use the restroom. If you are not fully vaccinated (including one booster shot), please wear a mask at all times. For the safety of our retreat participants, we encourage guests to rapid test before arrival.

ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is the author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals (winner of the 2022 Whiting Award for Nonfiction), Dub: Finding Ceremony, M Archive: After the End of the World, and Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, and co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines. Her writing has appeared in publications including Make/Shift, Left Turn, The Abolitionist, Ms. Magazine, and more. She holds a PhD in English, African and African American Studies, and Women and Gender Studies from Duke University and is the co founder of Black Feminist Film School, an initiative to screen, study, and produce films with a Black feminist ethic. In 2020, she was awarded the National Humanities Center Fellowship for her book-in progress, The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

CYNTHIA DEWI OKA

Originally from Bali, Indonesia, Cynthia Dewi Oka is the author of Fire Is Not a Country (2021) and Salvage (2017) from Northwestern University Press, and Nomad of Salt and Hard Water (2016) from Thread Makes Blanket Press. Her fourth poetry collection, A Tinderbox in Three Acts, is a Blessing the Boats Selection chosen by Aracelis Girmay and is forthcoming in fall 2022 from BOA Editions. A recipient of the Amy Clampitt Residency, Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and the Leeway Transformation Award, her writing appears in The Atlantic, POETRY, Academy of American Poets, and elsewhere. An alumnus of the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, she has taught creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, New Mexico State University and Voices of Our Nations (VONA). For fifteen years, Cynthia worked as an organizer, trainer, and fundraiser in social movements for gender, racial, economic, and migrant justice. As an immigrant and former young single mother with working-class roots, her aesthetics are guided by her core values: self-determination, collaboration, and attention to the peripheral. She writes to be free.

ABOUT BREW & FORGE

The Witches & Warriors Retreat is a project of Brew & Forge, whose mission is to amplify the collective power of writers and other artists to alchemize dreaming and build capacity in movements for liberation, justice, and survival. Through our annual book fair, retreat, and other events, we strive to foster mutual flourishing between writers and activists, leveraging the creative imagination to help build sustainable movements. More information at www.brewandforge.com.

Please contact Franny Choi at franny@brewandforge.com with any questions!