Following the success of its Black diasporic poetry workshop, Montgomery County Community College is continuing its year-long celebration of African American poetry by hosting an online community poetry reading, featuring two special guest poet laureates from our area.

“Amplifying Our Voices through Black Diasporic Poetry” begins online Wednesday, Feb. 17, from 6-7 p.m. Celebrate an evening of poetry with poetry readings by Montgomery County Poet Laureate David Gaines and Philadelphia Poet Laureate Trapeta B. Mayson. Each will read original works of poetry. Additionally, the winning poem of the College’s “Lift Every Voice” Poetry Contest will be presented, and the unveiling of the original art commissioned for the event. The event is free and open to the community.

Dr. Fran Lassiter, English Associate Professor and Amanda M. Leftwich, Student Success Librarian, won grant funding last fall from the Library of America’s “Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters,” initiative, allowing them to host programming at the College dedicated to enhancing appreciation of the extraordinary range and richness of the 250-year-long African American poetic tradition.

Lassiter and Leftwich said Gaines and Mayson were selected because they were esteemed poets from the area.

Gaines is the Montgomery County 2020-2021 Poet Laureate. He is a writer, actor and educator born and raised in uptown Philadelphia. As a product of a traditional Baptist household and a child of hip-hop culture, Gaines uses his poetry to analyze and unpack how the performance of religion and gender intersect within his personal life and the greater Black community.

Mayson is the city of Philadelphia 2020-2021 Poet Laureate. Her work sheds light on and honors the immigrant experience as well as amplifies the stories of everyday people. Her writing primarily centers on the experiences of immigrants to the United States, the struggles of people dealing with conflict in Liberia, and the daily lives of average people, especially women and girls.

“We wanted to have individuals with a connection to the community who were established poets,” said Lassiter. “They are known in the poetry community, so we are thrilled they’ll share their work with us on the event on 17th.”

“We’re honored to have them and thrilled they were able to make the time for us as poet laureates, said Leftwich. “One is a poet laureate for Philadelphia, the other is the poet laureate for Montco. So it’s an honor to have them both here.”

The poetry reading will offer a chance to ask questions of published authors, they said.

The poetry reading continues a year-long celebration of African American poetry. In October, Lassiter and Leftwich used the grant to host the online panel discussion, “Black History and Memory: A Discussion on Black Diasporic Poetry." Then the two hosted “Creating Black Diasporic Poetry: A Workshop” on Feb. 3, featuring artist and poet, Sonsiris Tamayo.

MCCC celebrates African American culture and history annually during the Pan African Festival hosted by the Black Student Union. The yearly festival was first created over a quarter of a century ago to recognize the contributions of Malcolm X, as well as those of the African Diaspora, meaning where Africans are from throughout the world.

“Lift Every Voice” is presented by Library of America with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Emerson Collective. Its principal objective is to engage participants in a multifaceted exploration of African American poetry, the perspectives it offers on American history and the struggle for racial justice, and the universality of its imaginative response to the personal experiences of black Americans over three centuries, according to its website.

MCCC was selected as one of 49 libraries in 24 states to receive the Library of America’s “Lift Every Voice: Why African American Poetry Matters” grant. A total of $58,800 was awarded to public libraries and other institutions in the form of $1,200 stipends to support public programs centered on a core selection of poems that illustrate five humanities themes at the heart of the project. Poets and scholars will participate in all programs, which will be presented online from September 2020 through February 2021 and will be free and open to the public.

The launch of the “Lift Every Voice” celebration coincided with the publication in September of “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song,” a major new Library of America anthology edited by Kevin Young, who also serves as principal humanities advisor on the project. Young is the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library.

For more information, contact Fran Lassiter at flassite@mc3.edu or Amanda Leftwich at aleftwich@mc3.edu.