The Meet-Up 2 Jon Sands & Sylvia Ewing Poetry Reading

"If the job of an artist is that of an emotional historian, then we must create poems that are as multi-dimensional and layered as the people who write them." -Jon Sands

Join us for evening of readings from Jon Sands and Sylvia Ewing with music from Shawn Wallace. Plus surprise Emotional Historians Workshop alum readers and poetic conversation. Light refreshments will be served.

***For the health and safety of our community and performers we ask that all attendees wear masks in the event space during the performance.***

The Artists:

Jon Sands is a winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, selected for his second book, It’s Not Magic (Beacon Press, 2019). He is the facilitator of the Emotional Historians a long running generative workshop. Jon’s has been featured in the New York Times, as well as anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He is a curator for SupaDupaFresh, a monthly reading series at Ode to Babel in NYC, and has received residencies and fellowships from the Blue Mountain Center, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Jerome Foundation, and the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses. He lives in Brooklyn.

Sylvia Ewing is a poet, curator, and meditation teacher. Her poem "What I Learned at the Dollar Store" was selected to appear in the upcoming Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora Outta Sight: Black Listening Special Issue. Ewing has been published in Newcity, Magazine, and the Chicago Reader. Ewing worked with Shawn Wallace on her Gardens of Light and Shadow multimedia poetry event directed by J.R. Sullivan. Ewing organized the original MeetUp .

Shawn Wallace is a musician from Chicago’s far Southwest side whose style ranges from Gospel to Jazz to Hip-Hop. Wallace studied Music Theory and Composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a keyboardist, he has worked with Common, Ugochi, and Johnny Gill, among others. Wallace is a Teaching Artist teaching production and theatre tech to youth from 6th–12th grades. He was the musical director for the musical Red Summer.

This event is cosponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Haymarket Books. While all our events are freely available we ask that those who are able make a contribution to support our publishing and programming work.