feb river + krieger book release (2.22)

please join us for a feb. river celebrating the voices and poetry of:

toiryan milligan
vanessa saunders
& dylan krieger's book release for "Giving Godhead" (Delete Press)

Toiryan Milligan is a spoken word artist born and raised in Baton Rouge Louisiana. He was a member of the 2016 National Poetry Slam Team for Baton Rouge Louisiana. Toiryan started his writing journey in high school in 2011 when he made The Baton Rouge National Team to compete in Brave New Voices, a national poetry slam competition with the top poets in the country. Toiryan is continuing to grow and learn new ways to captivate an audience. He hopes to keep growing and learning on his path to becoming one of the best to grace a stage.

Dylan Krieger is a pile of false eyelashes growing algae in south Louisiana. She lives in a little cottage with a catfish and her demons and sunlights as a trade mag editor. She earned her BA in English and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 2012 and her MFA in creative writing from Louisiana State University in 2015. Her first book, Giving Godhead (Delete Press, 2017), challenges the boundary between the sacred and the obscene by conflating biblical archetypes of holy acquiescence with sexually deviant forms of submission. Find more of her work at www.dylankrieger.com.

Vanessa Sauders enjoys green tea, Paul Celan, and long walks on the beach.

br human rights river

2016 was a brutal and capricious year for Baton Rouge and the United States. The change of presidential power markedly threatens democracy and human rights. Major cities around the country are organizing solidarity readings like The International Day of Poetry Benefit for Immigrants and Human Rights and Writers Resist. As human rights advocates and literary artists that share a home, we want to produce an original, Baton Rouge version of rebellion-through-art-and-community event, and we wish to invite interested artists in the community to join us in celebrating the diversity of our talented community of culture producers. We invite you to join us for an amazing, art-filled, and positive evening.

Readers include Chuy Avila, Toi the Poetic Beauty, Shannon Groll, Chelsea Murry, John Warner Smith, Phillip Spotswood, Robert Alan Wendeborn.

With musical performances from Quiana Lynell and Peggy Trenta.

Visual art and video intermission with Baton Rouge artist and creator of the Alton Sterling mural, Jo Hines.

awp offsite

Unlikely Books (New Orleans, LA) and Červená Barva Press (Somerville, MA) join forces with River Writers (Baton Rouge, LA), Delete Press (Fort Collins, CO) and TENDE RLOIN (Columbus, OH) to present a fun, relaxed evening of poetry and translation. Translators Marc Vincenz and Katherine Young will read, as will poets Kenyatta JP Garcia, Annie Pluto, Joani Reese, Michael Ruby, and Bill Yarrow.

After that, Vincent Cellucci will introduce the Krewe of No Other Reading, a decompression reading of verse and friendship, featuring a sub-krewe of Chatham alums and Dylan Krieger’s book release for Giving Godhead (Delete Press). Readers include: Ben Aleshire, Mel Coyle, Zachery Elbourne, Elizabeth Gross, Brittney Hailer, Jessica Kinnison, Gloria Mindock, Jenn Marie Nunes, Jonathan Penton, Brad Richard, Will Rivera, Sarah Shotland, Christine Stroud, and Chris Tonelli.