Please join us for our next Takoma Park Arts poetry reading to hear a diverse range of work by four local poets. The poets include Hazel Cherry, Laura Costas, Katherine Smith, and Emily Walz.

Captivated by art, nature, and the senses, Hazel Cherry is a storyteller who seeks to empower women to love themselves and chart their spiritual paths with authenticity and freedom. She obtained a Master’s in Divinity degree from Howard University and an MFA in creative writing from American University. She is working on her first poetry collection.

Laura Costas is an artist, writer, and D.C. native. She will be sharing new poems and work from her third book, Ariadne Awakens, Instructions for the Labyrinth, which was published in 2021.

Katherine Smith works at Montgomery College where she is the poetry editor of the Potomac Review. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Boulevard, North American Review, and Southern Review. Her third book, Secret City, was published this year.

Emily Walz is working on a chapbook, and her poetry has been published in the MaLa Literary Journal in China. She won the James Wright Poetry Prize in 2013 and second place in the Bethesda Magazine poetry contest in 2018.

The City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Division organizes many free events in the Takoma Park Arts series at the Takoma Park Community Center, including poetry readings, concerts, film screenings, theater, and art exhibitions. Go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info and to sign up for our e-newsletter.

In a free Takoma Park Arts poetry reading, four local poets of different races and ethnicities will share their poetry which transcends borders between nations and ourselves. The poets include David Camero, Kim B. Miller, Victoria Moten, and Thu Anh Nguyen.

As an immigrant from Caracas, Venezuela, David Camero experienced life in a country where basic human rights weren’t respected. He has used poetry as a means of highlighting political oppression and “to touch the sacred, not simply the true.” He received a BA in literature from the University Central of Venezuela.

Kim B. Miller was the first African American poet laureate for Prince William County, Manassas and Manassas Park, Va. She writes haiku and has performed at the National Black Theater, Atlas Performing Arts Center, and other venues.

Victoria Moten is an award-winning poet and English teacher at Takoma Park Middle School and the University of the District of Columbia. “As a Black woman living in America, I often find myself cut off from certain places and opportunities,” she says. “Our world can be so territorial with everything owned or governed by someone – everything except the sky. I know the sky I look at today is the same sky my ancestors saw and my children will see.”

Thu Anh Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American writer whose work explores border crossings, both literal and figurative, and the intersection of race and gender. Her poetry has been featured in many publications, and her work was recently nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Please go to takomaparkmd.gov/arts for more info about the Takoma Park Arts series and to sign up for our e-newsletter