Poet Laureates Reading & Signing

8130 Germantown Avenue,Philadelphia PA 19118

29 April, 2022

Description

We're thrilled to host Philly Poet Laureates, Airea D. Matthews and Andre'a Rhodes. Each poet will read from their work and take questions. Friends of the Chestnut Hill Library is teaming up with Stagecrafters Theater to host Philadelphia's Poet Laureates! This is a free, public event. All donations will support the efforts to restore full funding for the Free Library of Philadelphia. Airea D. Matthews’ first collection of poems is the critically acclaimed Simulacra, which received the prestigious 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. The collection explores the topics of longing and desire with power, insight, and intense emotion. Matthews received a 2020 Pew Fellowship, a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and was awarded the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from the 2016 Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Matthews earned her MFA from the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan. In 2022, she was named Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate. She is an assistant professor at Bryn Mawr College where she directs the poetry program. Andre'a Rhoads is a junior at Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls and a resident of North Philadelphia. She developed her love of writing at Gesu Elementary School where an advanced writing class taught her that we can learn about ourselves by reading the words of others. Encountering the work of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, and the poets of the Harlem Renaissance sparked her passion for poetry. Andre'a is also active in her community through volunteering with Cradles to Crayons and as a youth mentor for both her church and her middle school. She credits her gift for self-expression to her parents, the community that has nurtured her, and her faith: "My parents Tracy and Andre Rhoads always taught me to express myself unapologetically, and to never let obstacles stand in my way. I come from a loving community and family. When my back is against the wall, I have a support system who will come to my rescue. My peers and family members give me hope that dreams are real, and that anything is possible. My faith in God also uplifts me."