• Warsan Shire Poetry Read & Workshop With Josie Pickens - April 10th 2022 @ 2:00 PM CST

Warsan Shire Poetry Read & Workshop With Josie Pickens - April 10th 2022 @ 2:00 PM CST

Join writer Josie Pickens, for an afternoon of reading, reflecting, and writing at Kindred Stories' Reading Garden. Josie will guide attendees through a public reading of poems from a new collection of poetry from the incomparable Somali British poet Warsan Shire called Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head: Poems. In addition to reading and reflecting on Warsan’s poetry, attendees will also be invited to tap into their hearts and imaginations and write in response to the poems shared.
*** Attendees are asked to purchase the collection directly from Kindred Stories, if possible, and are also asked to bring writing materials to the event.
Here’s more about Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head: Poems: 
 
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vogue, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Bustle, Essence, The Week, Lit Hub

Mama, I made it / out of your home / alive, raised by / the voices / in my head. 

With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life, full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life, full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life, full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed.
About the author:
Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award–winning visual album Lemonade and the Disney film Black Is King in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. She also wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising, highlighting the voices and faces of Somali girls in Africa’s largest refugee camp.  Shire lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her full-length debut poetry collection.

About the workshop guide:

Josie Pickens is a womanist professor, writer, speaker and cultural critic whose collective brand Love No Limit is dedicated to curating expansive conversations about love. Josie asks through her writing and curated public conversations: how can we be better lovers to ourselves, to our families, to our friends, to our romantic partners and to our beloved communities. Her work centers curiosity and imagination much more than it centers prescriptions, as she her writings and public conversations co-learning experiences. Follow Josie’s musings on Twitter and Instagram at @jonubian. 

Regular price

Check out our shop on bookshop.org to order and still support us ♥

discover more in this category •

Stay Informed. We're building a community committed to celebrating Black authors + artisans. Subscribe to keep up with all things Kindred Stories.