Letters for Phillis

Join us to experience contemporary Black Woman poets invoking the life and legacy of Phillis Wheatley-Peters through their original work.

About this Event

September 2023 marks the Semiquincentennial of the publication Phillis Wheatley-Peters' Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. This event seeks to highlight the legacy Wheatley-Peters who made history here in Boston and globally. The event, Letters for Phillis, is inspired by the friendship between Phillis Wheatley and Obour Tanner, a Black woman enslaved in Rhode Island, and the letters they exchanged over the years. The event will feature several Black Woman poets reading their own work while engaging the work of Phillis Wheatley-Peters.

Featured Performers:

Danielle Legros Georges is a poet, translator, editor, and academic with interests in contemporary U.S. poetry, Black-American and African-diasporic literature, and Caribbean/Latin American and Haitian studies. Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from organizations including the American Antiquarian Society, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Boston Foundation, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. Appointed Boston’s Poet Laureate in 2014, she served in the role through 2019. Her books of poetry include Maroon; The Dear Remote Nearness of You; and Island Heart, translations of the poems of 20th-century Haitian-French poet Ida Faubert. She is editor, with Artress Bethany White, of the forthcoming anthology Wheatley at 250: Black Women Poets Re-imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters (Pangyrus, December 2023).

Tatiana (she/her) is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Nocturne in Joy (2023). She’s an educator and expert facilitator who uses her writing practice to dismantle racism, reckon with trauma, and to cultivate healing. She’s an award-winning writer who’s received distinguished fellowships from Tin House, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The MacDowell Residency, and others. Tatiana completed her MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College and teaches at Emerson College, GrubStreet, Catapult, and others. Find her work in or forthcoming at Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Pleiades, among others. She’s represented by Lauren Scovel at Laura Gross Literary.

Krysten Hill is the author of How Her Spirit Got Out (Aforementioned Productions, 2016), which received the 2017 Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize. Her work has been featured in The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day Series, Poetry Magazine, PANK, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Winter Tangerine Review, and elsewhere. She is recipient of the 2016 St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, 2020 Mass Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship, and 2023 Vermont Studio Center Residency.

Letta Neely, originally from Indianapolis, Indiana, is a Black lesbian playwright, performer, poet,mother, teacher and community activist who has been involved in progressive, anti-racist and queer liberation movements all her adult life. Her work focuses on the connections and intersections of queerness, Blackness, and awareness. Letta has written two books of poetry, Juba and Here(Wildheart Press), which were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards. As a member of the Traces/ Remain Ensemble with Deen Rawlins-Harris, she collaborated with Toshi Reagon's Emerson College residency: Parable Path Boston to develop the Seed to Harvest Book Project. Letta is also a co-artistic director for Fort Point Theatre Channel and within that collaborative, a member of Her Story Is. Letta is the Storyweaver- in-Residence at The Elma Lewis Center (at the Social Justice Collaborative at Emerson College) and hosts FireWater Poetics on the 1st Wednesdays of the month. Her most current project--a solo spoken word play, "Pulling It All Into the Current" had a sold out run at Boston Playwrights' Theatre. It will be performed again on August 12tjh and 13th on Martha's Vineyard and at the United Solo Theatre Festival on September 26th in New York City. "Pulling It All into the Current" is directed by Greg Allen and produced by The Revolution of Values Theatre Project. Finally, Letta is the Executive Director of Apprentice Learning.

Kyara Andrade-Howell also known as DJ TROY Frost is an artist, educator, and event curator from Dorchester and Roxbury. She started DJing in 2013 and completed Scratch DJ Academy’s certification program in 2015. After graduating from Barnard College in 2017, she worked for Boston Public Schools in varying roles. In 2019, she piloted The Breaks, an enrichment program which gave 15 Boston youth an introduction to the pillars of Hip Hop. Kyara now works part time as a library coordinator at middle/high school and at Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury. She teaches Hip Hop & Black History classes periodically. She is currently working on growing Purple Produce, an event series dedicated to creating events focused on Hip Hop, wellness, literacy and community collaboration.

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