Button Poetry: Usman Hameedi’s STAYING RIGHT HERE Release Show

2528 Nicollet Avenue,Minneapolis 55404

06 April, 2023

Description

6PM DOORS // 8PM SHOWTIME // $15 ADVANCE // $20 ADVANCE + BOOK // $20 DAY OF SHOW // $25 DAY OF SHOW + BOOK // $15 BOOK ONLY Join Button Poetry at Icehouse on April 16 (National Poetry Month!) to celebrate the release of Usman Hameedi’s poetry collection, STAYING RIGHT HERE. Usman is the reigning Roxbury Poetry Festival Slam Champion, he has coached and competed across stages internationally. Bundle your ticket with a book for only $5 more if purchased in advance! Usman Hameedi’s debut collection, Staying Right Here, is a journey in finding home. Hameedi invites readers to bear witness to vignettes of joy and hardship as he navigates finding his place in America. From an ode to Bodegas, an autobiography of his eyebrows, and elegies for lost friends, Hameedi’s thematic metaphors for family, wellness, and American biases weave a literary tapestry. Reading Usman’s work is like drinking a warm chai while watching the sunset in Brooklyn, or coming home to an aromatic Biryani. In his first poetry collection, Hameedi writes with an unmistakably unique voice that is not afraid of who he is. Staying Right Here is for those who have looked for themselves in media and only seen a one-dimensional character staring back at them. Usman Hameedi is a Pakistani-American scientist, poet, educator. He also serves on Mass Poetry’s Board of Directors. Since 2008, he has competed in and coached for collegiate, national, and international level poetry slams. Usman has been featured on The Huffington Post, Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, and The Story Collider: Storytelling for Scientists podcast. His first full-length collection, Staying Right Here, is forthcoming by Button Poetry (2023). Usman was a Mass Poetry Artist in Residence and worked with students in Hyde Park and Salem. He has also worked with other educators on how they can incorporate poetry into their classroom communities. Usman is shaping his career around his missions and ideals. His proudest moments are helping others see the genius within themselves!