An annual Cave Canem poetry reading featuring local Cave Canem fellows, hosted by Reginald Harris from Poets House, New York City.

Founded by Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady in 1996 to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in the literary landscape, Cave Canem Foundation is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. CityLit joins Enoch Pratt Free Library and Poets House Director of Library and Outreach Services, Reginald Harris in a celebration of poetry with a keynote poet and regional Cave Canem poets.

This is a virtual event. Registration is encouraged. FREE tickets for Zoom Webinar or Facebook Live are available through Eventbrite.

Steven Leyva‘s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in 2 Bridges Review, Scalawag, Nashville Review, jubilat, Vinyl, Prairie Schooner, and Best American Poetry 2020. He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook Low Parish and author of The Understudy’s Handbook which won the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from Washington Writers Publishing House. Steven holds an MFA from the University of Baltimore, where he is an assistant professor in the Klein Family School of Communications Design.

Evie Shockley is a poet and scholar. Her most recent poetry collections are the new black (Wesleyan, 2011) and semiautomatic (Wesleyan, 2017); both won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the latter was a finalist for the Pulitzer and LA Times Book Prizes.  She has received the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Stephen Henderson Award, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Cave Canem. Shockley is Professor of English at Rutgers University. To read a recent interview done with Evie Shockley, click here.

Cave Canem fellows also reading, include:
Saida Agostini
Abdul Ali
Teri Cross-Davis
Hayes Davis
Raina Fields
Linda Susan Jackson
Bettina Judd  
Alan King
Kateema Lee
Hermine Pinson