Poet and contributor to Raven Chronicles Anthology, Take A Stand, Art Against Hate, Stuart Gunter hosts an open mic, along with Virginia's former poet laureate Ron Smith (2014-2106). Also reading: Leslie Ryan and Molly Tierney from California. Readers will explore the theme: Poets Take A Stand.

October 1, 2020,

4-5:30 pm PST.

7-8:30 EST.

Readers: Stuart Gunter, Virginia's former poet laureate Ron Smith (2014-2106), and open mic.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81424000025pwd=cDc0SHM5b0E0dlg4L3JiTStMQ1FIdz09#success

This collection contains poems, stories and images from 117 writers, 53 artists, with 69 illustrations, divided into five fluid and intersecting sections: Legacies, We Are Here, Why?, Evidence, and Resistance. We begin with Legacies because the current increased climate of hate in this country didn’t begin with the 2016 election, and to find its roots we must look to U.S. history—to where the U.S. began—with the genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of Africans. From there the section loosely winds its way through time to touch on crucial events and different chapters of our nation’s history up to the present.

“This is a deeply democratic anthology—standing alongside nationally prominent voices such as Jericho Brown, Lucille Clifton, Tess Gallagher, Ilya Kaminsky, Dunya Mikhail, Marge Piercy and Danez Smith, are luminaries renowned in this region and beyond, such as Kathleen Alcalá, Gary Copeland Lilley, Claudia Castro Luna, Melissa Kwasny, Priscilla Long, Tiffany Midge, and Gail Tremblay.” —Carolyne Wright, co-editor of Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace

MC/Host Stuart Gunter lives in Schuyler, Virginia and has been accepted into the MFA program at Virginia Commonwealth University. His poems are forthcoming or have been published in the Take A Stand: Art Against Hate Anthology, Poet Lore, Hiram Poetry Review, Appalachian Journal, San Pedro River Review, Cold Mountain Review, and Plume, among others.