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People’s Poetry
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People’s Poetry

January 22, 2023 2-3pm

People's Poetry January 22

On Sunday, Jan. 22 at 2:00 p.m, Eder J. Williams McKnight, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Kaveh Bassiri will join us for our next People’s Poetry reading. Come hear them share their work.

The poetry reading will be held in the Woody Guthrie Center theater. This event is free with admission to the Woody Guthrie Center on the day of the event.


About the Poets

Eder J. Williams McKnight

Eder J. Williams McKnight

Williams McKnight’s work explores the multiracial history of Oklahoma, Tulsa, and the Greenwood District. Her poetry has been accompanied by visual and performance art and published in two handbound art books, But Move Not (2012) and A Burlap Bloom (2013) with artist Suzanne Sawyer of Wild Ginseng Studio.


Quraysh Ali Lansana

Quraysh Ali Lansana

Lansana is the author of twenty books in poetry, nonfiction and children’s literature. His most recent books include Opal’s Greenwood Oasis, the skin of dreams: new and collected poems, 1995-2018, The Whiskey of Our Discontent: Gwendolyn Brooks as Conscience & Change Agent) and The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop. is also the Executive Producer of KOSU/NPR’s Focus: Black Oklahoma monthly radio program and He is a founding member of Tri-City Collective.


Kaveh Bassiri

Kaveh Bassiri
Photo courtesy of the artist

Bassiri is an Iranian-American writer and translator. His collection 99 Names of Exile won the 2019 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize and Elementary English won the 2020 Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize. He is also a Tulsa Artist Fellow.


About People’s Poetry

Woody Guthrie was an artist in multiple mediums. In addition to his music and paintings, Woody was a prolific writer, producing a bulk of poems, essays, short stories, and more.

Often called the “Poet of the People”, Woody’s writing was an important tool both for his personal self-expression and his life-long commitment to activism.

Woody Guthrie once wrote, “A folk song is what’s wrong and how to fix it, or it could be who’s hungry and where their mouth is or who’s out of work and how to fix it or who’s broke and where the money is or who’s carrying a gun and where the peace is.”

This bent toward repairing the damages of the world was at the forefront of his creative drive. People’s Poetry carries on the legacy of Woody Guthrie and his writing while also highlighting the voice of today’s poets who use their craft towards that same end: highlighting the injustices of the world and pushing us all towards a better world.

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