The Writer’s Center welcomes poets Jubi Arriola-Headley, Kyle Dargan, and Joseph Ross for a reading and reception. Hosted by Christina Beasley.
Free and open to the public, register below.
Jubi Arriola-Headley (he/him) is a Black queer poet, storyteller, first-generation United Statesian, and author of the poetry collection original kink (Sibling Rivalry Press), recipient of the 2021 Housatonic Book Award; his second collection, Bound, will be published by Persea Books in February 2024. Jubi’s work has received support from Yaddo, Millay Arts, Lambda Literary, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and his poems have been featured in Literary Hub, Kweli Journal, & Southern Humanities Review, on PBS NewsHour’s Brief But Spectacular, & elsewhere. He currently at work on a memoir in essays, an excerpt of which received the 2023 First Pages Prize. Jubi lives with his husband in South Florida, on ancestral Tequesta, Miccosukee, and Seminole lands, and his work explores themes of masculinity, vulnerability, rage, tenderness & joy. Black Lives Matter. Trans Lives Matter. Stop Asian Hate. Art is Labor. Abolish Policing. Eat the Rich. Stay Kinky. Free Palestine.
Kyle Dargan is the author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)–were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He’s worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program. He is currently an Associate Professor of literature and Asst. Director of creative writing at American University, as well as the founder and editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He also works as a Managing Editor for Janelle Monae’s creative company, Wondaland, and serves as the curator and moderator of the “Life of a Poet” series at The Hill Center in Washington, D.C. Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Dargan is a graduate of Saint Benedict’s Prep, The University of Virginia, and Indiana University.
Joseph Ross is the author of five books of poetry: Crushed & Crowned (2023), Raising King (2020), Ache (2017), Gospel of Dust (2013) and Meeting Bone Man (2012). His poems appear in many publications including, The New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Poet Lore, The Langston Hughes Review, and the 2022 anthology, WHERE WE STAND: Poems of Black Resilience. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and won the 2012 Pratt Library / Little Patuxent Review Poetry Prize for his poem “If Mamie Till Was the Mother of God.” Recently, Ross served as judge for the 2021 Ken Ebert Poetry Prize from Iris G. Press. He currently serves on the Poetry Board at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. where he teaches English and Creative Writing. Ross writes regularly at www.JosephRoss.net.
Christina Beasley is a writer, poetry editor for Barrelhouse Magazine, civil servant, and amateur cryptozoologist in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in Copper Nickel, Split Lip, Atlanta Review, The Pinch, The Southampton Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and her MA from Georgetown University.
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