Poetry READINGS and Events
The Poetry Center at PCCC offers readings as part of the Distinguished Poets Series. It also hosts readings with poets who have been finalists and winners of contests and awards sponsored by the Center, including The Paterson Poetry Prize and The Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. There is an annual reading to celebrate the latest issue of the Paterson Literary Review and for occasional anthologies sponsored by the Center. Many of the readings and workshops offered at The Poetry Center are also featured on Maria Mazziotti Gillan's blog.
The Poetry Center will be holding both virtual readings and in-person events. The Zoom links for virtual events will take you to the live event and later to the archived recording.
Virtual readings begin at 2:30 PM ET unless otherwise noted below.
In-person readings begin at 1 PM in the Hamilton Club unless otherwise noted below. (directions to Hamilton Club)
Recent readings from the Poetry Center and archived videos from years past are now available on the Poetry Center at PCCC’s YouTube Channel.
Poetry workshops are conducted by most of the featured poets before their readings. For more information on how to register, see the Workshops page.
Mahogany L. Browne, a Kennedy Center’s Next 50 fellow, is a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne received fellowships from All Arts, Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Baldwin for the Arts, Cave Canem, Hawthornden, Poets House, Mellon Research, Rauschenberg, Wesleyan University, & UCross. Browne’s books include Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky (optioned for a play by Steppenwolf Theater), Black Girl Magic, and banned books Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice and Woke Baby. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne currently tours Chrome Valley (highlighted in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times) and is the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize winner. She holds an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree awarded by Marymount Manhattan College in 2024, is the inaugural poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center, and is at work on her first adult fiction and fourth YA novel-in-verse in Brooklyn, NY.
Afaa M. Weaver ’s most recent collection of poetry is A Fire in the Hills. His plays include Berea. His awards include the Wallace Stevens, Kingsley Tufts, and St. Botolph’s 2019 Distinguished Artist, as well as medals from the Beijing Writers Association, and Taiwan’s Artists and Writers Association. Afaa is a Guggenheim fellow, a Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets, professor emeritus at Simmons University, and guest MFA faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. His papers are held in the Howard Gotlieb Center at Boston University. With his wife Kristen Skedgell, Afaa lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York.
THEME: POETRY READING
HOST: The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College
FEATURES: Afaa M. Weaver & Mahogany Browne
PRICE: N/A
CONTACT: FB - The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College / 973-684-6555 / mgillan@pccc.edu
