Mental Health, the Creative Process, and Poetry as Healing Balm

A Book Reading and Discussion of ‘So Righteous We Go Flying’ by Adedayo Agarau and Elisabeth Horan.

SYNOPSIS
Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau and Elisabeth Horan live very different lives on opposite sides of the world. Yet across the distance, they found each other, and the deep and abiding friendship born of shared trauma and a desire to feel truly seen is here, distilled into these poems. Agarau’s stunning photography weaves in and out of the poems, with words and images speaking to each other about love, loss, and what it means to find a friend who truly understands you in the most unexpected of ways.

REVIEWS
“The honesty and courage in their voices is exacting and lifting at once. They’ve told our story alongside theirs.” — Sàlàkó Olúwapèlúmi Francis, poet, and essayist

“These poems speak truth to anxiety & depression the way love speaks mercy to hate.” -Bola Opaleke, author of Skeleton of a Ruined Song

“…it reconfigures us to see the possibilities of opening it all up.”—Siham Karami, author of To Love the River

AUTHORS AND GUESTS

Adedayo Agarau
Adedayo Agarau’s chapbook, Origin of Names, was selected by Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes for New Generation African Poet (African Poetry Book Fund), 2020. He is a human nutritionist, documentary photographer, and author of two chapbooks, For Boys Who Went & The Arrival of Rain. Adedayo was shortlisted for the Babishai Niwe Poetry Prize in 2018, Runner up of the Sehvage Poetry Prize, 2019. Adedayo is an Assistant Editor at Animal Heart Press, a Contributing Editor for Poetry at Barren Magazine, and a Poetry reader at Feral. His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Glass Poetry, Mineral Lit, Ice Floe, Ghost City, Temz, Linden Avenue, Headway Lit, The Shore Poetry, Giallo, and elsewhere. Adedayo was said to have curated and edited the biggest poetry anthology by Nigerian poets, Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry.

Elisabeth Horan
Elisabeth Horan is an imperfect creature from Vermont advocating for animals, children, and those suffering alone and in pain – especially those ostracized by disability and mental illness.  She is Editor in Chief at Animal Heart Press, and Co-Editor at Ice Floe Press. She has several chaps and collections out at Bone & Ink Press, Fly on the Wall Press, Cephalo Press, and Animal Heart Press. Her newest collection, ‘Just to the Right of the Stove’, is forthcoming at TwistIt Press, Feb. 2020.
Follow her @ehoranpoet  &  ehoranpoet.com

HOST

Soonest Nathaniel
Soonest Nathaniel is a Poet and spoken word artist. He is the author of “Teaching My Father How To Impregnate Women,” selected as the winner of the 2017 RL Poetry Award. He was Poet Laureate for the 2014 Korea Nigeria Poetry Festival. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Rattle, The Pedestal Magazine, Praxis Mag, Raven Chronicles, Wiki Column, Saraba, Loudthotz, Northridge Review, Reverbnation, Elsewhere, Scintilla, Erbacce UK, Kalahari Review, Sentinel Nigeria, and many more.

Date: 9th September 2020.
Time: 5 pm Prompt

Register HERE  and join us on Zoom