Book Launch & Salon
Saturday, November 9th, 7 PM
$5-10 sliding scale (no one turned away)
Please join us as we celebrate the release of
Xandria Phillips’ debut poetry collection, HULL &
Raych Jackson’s debut collection EVEN THE SAINTS AUDITION.
Rachel “Raych” Jackson is a writer, educator, and performer. While teaching third and fourth grade in Chicago Public Schools, Jackson competed in numerous national poetry teams and individual competitions. Her poems have gained over 2 million views on YouTube. She is the 2017 NUPIC Champion and a 2017 Pink Door fellow. Jackson recently voiced ‘DJ Raych’ in the Jackbox game, Mad Verse City. Her latest play, “Emotions & Bots”, premiered at the Woerdz Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland. Jackson wrote a room dedicated to her city for 29Rooms’first installment in Chicago, through Refinery 29. She co-created and co-hosts Big Kid Slam, a monthly poetry show in Chicago. Jackson’s work has been published by many— including Poetry Magazine, The Rumpus, The Shallow Ends, and Washington Square Review. Her debut collection EVEN THE SAINTS AUDITION released September 24th through Button Poetry. She currently lives in Chicago.
Even the Saints Audition: A book of poems exploring the relationship between blackness, shame, and what it is to live a life tied to the church. Rich with historical context and a deeply engaging personal narrative.
Xandria Phillips is a poet and visual artist from rural Ohio. They are the author of Reasons For Smoking, which won the 2016 Seattle Review chapbook contest judged by Claudia Rankine. Their poem “For a Burial Free of Sharks” won the 2016 Gigantic Sequins poetry contest judged by Lucas De Lima. Xandria has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Callaloo, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, where they are the First Wave Poetry Fellow. Their poetry has been featured in Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Poets.Org, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere.
HULL explores emotional impacts of colonialism and racism on the Black queer body and the present-day emotional impacts of enslavement in urban, rural, and international settings. HULL is lyrical, layered, history-ridden, experimental, textured, adorned, ecstatic, and emotionally investigative.
Filed under: artist in attendance, autobiography, black and brown, collaboration, essay, experimental, lecture, performance, poetry, queer, reading, social justice
