People's Poetry Returns! (with Live Music)

After a brief hiatus, People's Poetry--Tulsa's protest poetry reading series--returns at LitFest! A reading series by the people, for the people, now with 100% more music!

Featuring poets Zhenya Yevtushenko, Deborah Hunter, Kaveh Bassiri, and Tonee Shelton, alongside musical guests Avery Marshall and Josh Wann. Hosted by Quinn Carver Johnson.

Quinn Carver Johnson is a poet and teaching artist from Tulsa. They are the author of The Perfect Bastard (Curbstone Books, 2023), a novel-in-verse exploring themes of gender identity, sexuality, and working-class struggle in the colorful, curated world of professional wrestling. The book won the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Poetry.

Carver Johnson’s work has also appeared in World Literature Today, Rappahannock Review, Right Hand Pointing, Cimarron Review, and Red Earth Review. They are the guest services manager of the Bob Dylan Center and a curator for the Woody Guthrie Center, as well as the host of People’s Poetry, a reading series dedicated to protest poetics.

Tonee B. Shelton, LMSW is an author, poet, facilitator and speaker. A conversationalist, Tonee loves talking and connecting people to one another, leveraging poetry and discussions to promote wellness and self-care. To date, Tonee has published seven books, In Search of Freedom (2021), Identity Crisis (2022), Remnants. (2023), No one is coming to save you. (2024), Growth: Poems for Evolution (2024), Off To See the Wizard (2024), and her latest children’s book, Dream Big: A Poem for young dreamers. (2025). Tonee was Miss Juneteenth and Miss Congeniality 2010 for Killeen, Texas and has dedicated her lifes’ work to inspire the next generation of young achievers to dream big through literacy and poetry. Dubbed early as being talkative, Tonee has used her “gift of gab” to keynote events at Baylor University and University of Mary Hardin Baylor. She has written and performed her poetry at over 100+ venues since 2021, enjoying every moment of being a spoken word artist. Tonee has aspirations of starting her own media and publishing company and is currently working on a book tour across Texas, where she is encouraging children to work hard and to dream big. An avid reader, Tonee is on a mission to inspire the world to embrace the importance of literacy. She owes everything that she has to God and her loving parents, Tony and Barbara Shelton.

www.bettawatchyatone.com

Zhenya Yevtushenko might be the only poet to have performed at the Library of Congress and Mercury Lounge. He is a food service roustabout, performer, and workshop facilitator. He aspires to become a public school teacher. His work has been published in The Guardian, eMerge Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, and The Tulsa Review. He owes his inspiration to his family and to the love of his life, Olivia.

Kaveh Bassiri is an Iranian-American writer and translator. He is a recipient of the Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency and the Sturgis International Fellowship. His translations have been published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica, Colorado Review, Two Lines, World Literature Today, Asymptote, and theMassachusetts Review. His poetry won Bellingham Review’s 49th Parallel Award and is published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Drunken Boat, Nimrod International Journal, Mississippi Review, and Best New Poets. His chapbook 99 Names of Exile, winner of the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, is coming out in 2019.

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