Join us on Friday, March 1, during the First Friday Art Crawl for an expanded edition of our People’s Poetry reading series. Drawing its name from the organizations People’s Songs and People’s Artists, People’s Poetry is dedicated to connecting protest poets with the politically-charged art and writing of Woody Guthrie. In conjunction with the Woody Guthrie Center’s latest poetry and photography exhibit “Children of Grass,” this installment of the series will feature a robust slate of brilliant local authors.
March’s edition of the reading series will feature Audrey Kallenberger, Cheyenne Fletcher, Kaveh Bassiri, Phetote Mshairi, and Hanna Al-Jibouri.
Details
Friday, March 1, 2024
Woody Guthrie Center theater
102 E. Reconciliation Way, Tulsa, OK 74103
Tickets
Tickets are free with $5 art crawl admission to the Woody Guthrie Center — available at the door.
About Audrey Kallenberger
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Audrey Kallenberger has been dreamily writing poetry, prose and stories since she was 9 years old. Imbued with a deep sense of curiosity and love of travel, she studied French and International Studies at the University of Oklahoma and completed a Master’s Degree in Political Theory at The University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She published her first book, The Year of Our Lady of Surrender in 2022.
About Cheyenne Fletcher
Cheyenne C. Fletcher is a poet from Northeastern Oklahoma, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is an aunt and public school advocate. Her work currently addresses queer, rural, and working class themes. A graduate of the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, she now resides in Tulsa.
About Kaveh Bassiri
Kaveh Bassiri is an Iranian-American writer and translator. He is the author of 99 Names of Exile, winner of the 2019 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and Elementary English, winner of the 2020 Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize. His writing can also be found in Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Virginia Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry Northwest, Nimrod International Journal, The Cincinnati Review, and Shenandoah. Bassiri is the recipient of 2022-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and a 2019 translation fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
About Phetote Mshairi
Phetote Mshairi is a poet; interdisciplinary artist; author/publisher at New Greenwood, LLC; Alumni in Residence at Tulsa Artist Fellowship; fellow with Tulsa Artist Fellowship (2021-2023); vice-chairman of the poetry committee at Living Arts of Tulsa; Greenwood Art Project artist; and member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. from Tulsa, OK. He is the editor and publisher of RELEASE ME, the Spirits of Greenwood Speak anthology and author/publisher of An Old Fart and a Thousand Sentiments. Phetote is also a mentor with 100 Black Men of Tulsa, literacy advocate, community activist, poetry slam champion, copywriter, songwriter, host, actor, keynote speaker, and perpetual learner.
Ever since Phetote could form sentences, he’s been sentenced to a life of making sense of life by translating sentiments into rhythmic sentences. Phetote Mshairi writes and speaks for those at a loss for words.
About Hanna Al-Jibouri
Hanna Al-Jibouri (she/her) is an Iraqi-American. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in Gender Studies from Hendrix College in Arkansas. She received her Master’s degree in Teaching with an emphasis in Literacy from OSU-Tulsa. She has been a public school elementary teacher for the last twelve years in North Tulsa. She is a volunteer for a local nonprofit organization Poetic Justice and teaches poetry to individuals in the Tulsa County Jail every Thursday. She also volunteers with Tornado Alley Bulldog Rescue, fostering and transporting bulldogs. Hanna’s poetry explores themes about love, identity, and family.
