Happy New Year from Poetry in Davis,
The Poetry Night Reading Series is proud to present Sacramento Poet Laureate Andru Defeye and New York-based poet Holly Mitchell at 7 PM on Thursday, January 6th, 2022 via Zoom: https://ucdavisdds.zoom.us/my/andyojones.
Andru Defeye is a poet, writer, community organizer, musician, and the current Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Defeye has worked documenting arts and culture as a writer and editor with publications including Comstock’s Magazine, Sacramento News and Review, and Submerge Magazine since 2006. He served as the Director of Communications for the Sacramento-based art and cultural center Sol Collective from 2009-2020.
In 2014, Defeye founded Zero Forbidden Goals, a support system for creatives dedicated to innovating arts equity, experiences, and education. In 2020, Defeye was part of the Sol Collective team, in partnership with the Sacramento Bee, that launched “The Community to Newsroom Pipeline” that provides training and employment pathways in media professions for historically-disenfranchised voices. Also in 2020, Defeye became the youngest poet laureate in Sacramento history and released the album Frequency.
Holly Mitchell is a poet from Kentucky, now based in New York. A winner of an Amy Award from Poets & Writers and a Gertrude Claytor Prize from the Academy of American Poets, Mitchell received an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College. Michell’s debut collection, Mare’s Nest, will be published by Sarabande Books in 2023. Her poems have appeared in several literary journals, including Day One, Narrative Magazine, Paperbag, and Washington Square Review.
In consideration of the safety of our community, this event will take place virtually on Zoom (https://ucdavisdds.zoom.us/my/andyojones) at 7 PM Pacific Time on Thursday, January 6th. Performances at the short open mic to begin after the features will be limited to one chosen text or three minutes, whichever is shorter.
The Poetry Night Reading Series, taking place on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 PM, is generously supported by the people and poets of the Sacramento Valley, and by John Natsoulas and the staff at the John Natsoulas Gallery. Your host will be Dr. Andy Jones, the poet laureate emeritus of the City of Davis.
Dr. Andy
P.S. Please plan to attend Poetry Night performances on first and third Thursdays of the month. On January 20th, we will be joined by Gabrielle Myers, author of the new book Too Many Seeds; on February 3, we will be joined by reclusive and acclaimed UC Davis professor Joe Wenderoth; and on February 17th, Poetry Night will feature Patricia Caspers, author of the just-published poetry book Some Flawed Magic. This spring we will feature, among others, Davis Poet Laureate Julia Levine, Frank Gaspar, Joseph Millar, and Dorianne Laux.
