mass incarceration

Randall Horton gives the inaugural reading in the Poetry Center’s Art for Justice series. Horton reads new work commissioned by the Poetry Center from a manuscript in progress titled #219128, as well as excerpts from Hook: A Memoir (2015). Ojalá Systems gives an introductory performance.

Nikky Finney reads poems from her collections The World Is Round (2003) and Lovechild's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry (forthcoming in 2020). Finney also reads her new work titled "Black Boy with Cow: A Still Life" commissioned for the Poetry Center's Art for Justice series. Members of the American Friends Service Committee, Tucson give an introductory presentation.

As part of the Institute for Inquiry and Poetics, Sin à Tes Souhaits (Frank Johnson), Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and Raquel Salas Rivera read and discuss poems from their unpublished manuscripts Literal Dope (À Tes Souhaits), Racial Calculus (Villarreal), and Oso Blanco (Salas Rivera). Diana Marie Delgado leads a conversation throughout the event.

As part of the Institute for Inquiry and Poetics and the Art for Justice series, Reginald Dwayne Betts performs a portion of Felon: An American Washi Tale, a one-man play centered on the importance of books and paper in and after prison. Diana Marie Delgado leads a conversation with Betts and guest Joe Watson to conclude the reading, focused on the play, the Art for Justice series itself, and the Million Book Project.

Mahogany L. Browne reads poems from her collection I Remember Death By Its Proximity to What I Love (2021) and closes with a guided meditation.

This launch event for the anthology Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration (2025) includes readings by three poets from the book, following an introduction to the project by editor Diana Marie Delgado. Sin à Tes Souhaits reads poems focused on mass incarceration and the cycles of violence it perpetuates. Roque Raquel Salas Rivera reads poems in Spanish and English about el Oso Blanco, a prison built with the labor of enslaved people and prisoners in Puerto Rico. Vanessa Angélica Villarreal reads an essay on Game of Thrones viewed as a story of Latine identity in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. A series of short poem-films shown at the event is not included for reasons of copyright.