Poetics of Pride celebrates the lived experiences of queer and trans folks through poetry, giving word to their resistance and resilience.
Open Mic to Follow
Free Event
Sponsored by Maplewood Division of Arts and Culture
Kathleen Kremins is a Newark, NJ native of Irish immigrant parents and a retired public school teacher. She is the author of The Ethics of Reading: The Broken Beauties of Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, and Nawal el Sadaawi, and her first book of poetry, Undressing the World, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in June 2022. Kathy’s work appears in The Night Heron Barks, The Paterson Literary Review, Moving Words 2020 project, The Stillwater Review, Lavender Review, Sensations Magazine, Divine Feminist: An Anthology of Poetry & Art By Womxn and Non-Binary Folx, and Too Smart to be Sentimental: Contemporary Irish American Women Writers.
Attorious Renee Augustin
Master of Fine Arts Poet
Attorious Renée Augustin is the host of Lampblack’s Instagram Live Series, “The Inky Bulb” and a nonbinary (they/them), queer, performance poet, filmmaker, and educator from Wanamassa, NJ. Their work focuses on transformation and community, and their hope is for their art to serve as a catalyst in the liberation of all people from oppressive systems. Attorious is an MFA Candidate at Rutgers University- Newark, and an artist-in-residence with New Jersey Preforming Arts Center, where they were co-artistic director of NJPac’s 2022 performance, “Phronesis: A Focus on Frequency.”
Claudia Cortese is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her first full-length collection, WASP QUEEN (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), explores the privilege and pathology, trauma and brattiness of suburban girlhood. Her work has appeared in Blackbird, Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast Online, The Offing, and Sixth Finch, among others. She is also a book reviewer at Muzzle Magazine. The daughter of Neapolitan immigrants, Cortese grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey, where she teaches at Montclair State University.
Claudia Cortese