The Green Way Reading Series, vol.2

The Green Way Reading Series is a monthly literary event based in Takoma Park, MD curated by Elizabeth Bryant and Takoma Park’s Poet Laureate Taylor Johnson. The series centers emerging and established poets and artists in interdisciplinary, intergenerational and cross-regional dialogues. We want these programs to encourage growing participation and local engagement in the evolving landscape of contemporary poetry. The intention is to bring something new to this area with offerings that provide a space for horizontal community building, the generation of new work, and the amplification of local poets. The series is made possible by generous support from the Cave Canem Foundation and the Maryland State Arts Council, in addition to our collaboration with Takoma Park’s People’s Book. The space is open from 5:00 – 7:00 pm, readings begin at 5:30 pm. We hope that you can join!

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union, winner of the 2019 Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize (Mad Creek Books, 2021) and Haint, (Gival Press, 2021) winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the 2020 winner of the Poetry Society of America’s (PSA) Robert H. Winner Memorial Award. A Cave Canem fellow, she has been awarded scholarships, residencies and fellowships to attend the Community of Writers Workshop, Hedgebrook, the Soul Mountain Writer’s Retreat, among others. Her work can be read online in the Academy of American Poets, Kenyon Review, Poet Lore, Poetry Ireland Review, Tin House, Torch, and Sligo Journal, and elsewhere. She was the HoCoPoLitSo (Howard County Poetry and Literature Society) Writer-in-Residence for 2019-2020 and an adjunct professor at George Washington University for 2019-2020. She is the Poetry Coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. and lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis and their two children.

Malik Thompson is a Black queer man from Washington, DC. His work is featured in MQR Mixtape, Voicemail Poems, Poet Lore, and other places. He has received support from Lambda Literary, Obsidian Foundation, Brooklyn Poets, Cave Canem, and other organizations. He can be found on Instagram via the handle @latesummerstar.

Bernardine (Dine) Watson is a nonfiction writer and poet who lives in Washington. She has written on social policy issues for many major foundations, nonprofit organizations, and for the Washington Post Health and Science section and She the People blog. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies. Dine is a member of the 2015 class of the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities Poet in Progress Program and the 2017 and 2018 classes of the Hurston Wright Foundation’s Summer Writers’ Workshop for Poetry. Her memoir: Transplant won the 2023 Washington Writers’ Publishing House prize for nonfiction.