IO is pleased to close out our 2012 Scratch the Page series with visiting poet, Rachel McKibbens. Her poetry has rightfully been called searing and unflinching. She comes to town Sat., March 31st., for a workshop with IO's award-winning Citywide Poets, followed by an evening public reading at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Center. A $5 donation is suggested for the reading, starting at 6 p.m. The series is sponsored by Poets & Writers magazine and Detroit's Book Cadillac Hotel. McKibbens, a 2007 New York Foundation for the Arts poetry fellow and Pushcart nominee, is the author of Pink Elephant. She also teaches poetry and creative writing throughout the country, from housing projects and needle exchanges to high schools, hospitals and universities. Learn more about McKibbens here. |
| The Next Poem I Write The next poem I write will love unconditionally. It will swim in your veins and make you a better person. It won't break your heart and act like it cares and leave you in despair. The next poem will be there in sickness and in health. The next poem won't forget it knew you. But it will pick you up when you trip or fall. The next poem I write will be your friend, sister, brother, or your parents when you need them the most. -- Chris Lee, Golightly Educational Center, Detroit, 2012 |
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| | | Still Tipping Our Hat to IO Believers
 One hundred and thirty of you have, so far, answered the call to help IO match a $25,000 challenge grant from Hollywood filmmaker Bob Shaye. A gap remains, but Detroit's creative response - including a spectacular evening of words and champagne, hosted by entrepreneurs Rachel Lutz of The Peacock Room, Detroit Snob founder Desiree Cooper and textile artist Carole Harris - has spurred Shaye to extend his deadline once again. The more than 200 who shopped in support of IO, raising $2,000, delivered a resounding message. "Our students and their brave words matter,'' said IO Founder and Executive Director, Terry Blackhawk. "Their work shows the beauty, the resilience, the real spirit of our city.'' Donations to IO can be made via paypal through our website. Shaye will continue to match donations through March 30th. |
| Terry Takes the Mic in March In between growing IO into Detroit's largest literary arts nonprofit, founder Terry Blackhawk, an award-winning poet, somehow managed to pen a courageous new collection of poems, The Light Between.  | | Photo credit: Asha E. Criner |
The book, published by Wayne State University Press, probes through the painful dissolution of a long marriage to discover, as IO's Peter Markus writes, "the song in the severing, the music in the mirage of marriage and its loss." IO supporters can catch Terry sharing poems from The Light Between during a series of upcoming readings. She joins fellow WSU Press authors Bill Harris, and francine j. harris for Midtown's Triple Poet Treat, a reading at Leopold's Books, Tuesday, March 13th at 6:00. Bill Harris, a founding IO board member, is the author of Booker T. & Them: A Blues. francine j. harris, a former IO program coordinator and writer-in-residence, will be reading from allegiance, her debut collection. On Friday, March 16th, Terry combines words and music with the help of her "Poetry Jazz Sisters,'' Judy Rowe Michaels, a poet with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and celebrated Jazz pianist, Ellen Rowe, Professor of Music at the University of Michigan. The Poetry Jazz Sisters start jamming at 6 p.m. at the Virgil H. Carr Cultural Center. Sign up for the event here. For a full list of Terry's reading schedule, click here. |
| | InsideOut's Writers Reading Series
Friday, March 30th, 6 p.m. at Detroit Artists Market 4719 Woodward Ave., Detroit  The Writers Reading Series promotes InsideOut's teaching writers and brings their creativity to the community. Free and open to the public. March 30th's featured readers are: Alise Alousi, Kristine Uyeda, Heather Harrison, Chace Morris with a special appearance by Terry. |
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