Member News

Rochester, NY | New York NY—New York State Poet Laureate Patricia Spears Jones and Writers & Books announce Across Generations: Creating New Democratic Vistas, an interactive poetry project to take place March – June 2025. Spears Jones is one of 22 poets laureate of states, counties, and cities across the nation selected by the Academy of American Poets to lead community-based public programs that, in the words of Academy President and Executive Director Ricardo Maldonado, “elevate civil discourse and remind us of the true possibility of a shared future.” The Fellowship is funded by the Academy and the Mellon Foundation. Following her master class on March 13 at Writers & Books, Rochester (available by invitation), seven free regional workshops in April/May 2025 will enact Spears Jones’ intention to foster inter-generational understanding and inspire “the kinds of conversations that permit serious discussion of social justice, environmental degradation, systemic oppression, and cultural resistance, and what beauty means and how that meaning changes over time.” A hybrid celebratory group reading in June will be announced.

ACROSS GENERATIONS WORKSHOPS, Free & Open to the Public, Ages 18 & Above
April 16 & 17: “I saw it in a movie once”--Poetry, Cinema, and Rethinking Democracy, led by Jordan E. Franklin, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York , NY
April 19: Mortal Concerns–Community, Democracy & the Weird Mr. Whitman, led by Patricia Spears Jones, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY
April 19 & 26: Citizen Writers–Poetry in the Present Reality, led by Bart White, Phillis Wheatley Community Library, Rochester, NY
May 3 & 10: Mother of Invention–Poetry & Persona Workshop, led by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose, sponsored by Susan B. Anthony Museum & House, Rochester, NY
May 24 & 31: Unexpected Coalitions–the People's Poetry of Walt Whitman and June Jordan, led by Conor “Coco” Tomás Reed, City Lore, New York, NY

Patricia Spears Jones has published fi ve poetry collections, most recently The Beloved Community (Copper Canyon Press, 2023), as well as fi ve chapbooks. In 2023-24, she was appointed New York State Poet, the offi cial title of the poet laureate position in New York. She is the 11th recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize (2017), among the most substantial awards given to an American poet. Spears Jones has been awarded two New York Foundation of the Arts grants, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award, The Porter Fund Literary Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and numerous residencies. In 2024, she was appointed the inaugural Lucille Clifton Poetry Chair at the Community of Writers. She teaches at Barnard College.
The Academy of American Poets, New York, NY, is a leading publisher of contemporary poetry across the United States. The organization annually awards $1.3+ million to more than 200 poets at various stages of their careers through its prize program. It also produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; established and organizes National Poetry Month each April; publishes the Poem-a-Day series and American Poets magazine; provides free resources to educators; hosts an annual series of poetry readings and special events; and coordinates a national Poetry Coalition that promotes the value poets bring to our culture. To learn more visit www.poets.org .
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through its grants, the Mellon Foundation seeks to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at www. mellon.org.
Writers & Books, 740 University Avenue, Rochester, promotes reading and writing as lifelong activities for people of all ages and backgrounds to enrich their lives and the intellectual, social, and cultural vibrancy of their communities. The organization engages youth and adults with the literary arts through writing workshops, readings, presentations, and intersectional activities. Writers & Books owns and operates Ampersand Books, an in-house independent bookstore, and Gell: A Finger Lakes Creative Retreat, sited on 24 acres in Naples, NY. To learn more, visit www.wab.org.

City Lore’s mission is to foster New York City – and America’s – living cultural heritage through education and public programs in service of cultural equity and social justice. Founded in 1985, the organization documents, presents, and advocates for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions. City Lore works in four cultural domains: urban folklore and history; preservation; arts education; and grassroots poetry traditions to further cultural equity and model a better world with projects as dynamic and diverse as New York City itself.
The National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House in Rochester, NY, interprets the great reformer’s vision and story, preserves and shares her National Historic Landmark home and headquarters, collects and exhibits artifacts related to her life and work, and off ers tours and interpretive programs to inspire and challenge individuals to make a positive diff erence.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, NY, one of The New York Public Library’s renowned research libraries, is a world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Visit https://www.nypl.org/locations/schomburg to learn more.
The Phillis Wheatley Community Library in Rochester, NY is an ultra-modern building designed by architect James H. Johnson, built in 1971. A handicapped accessible facility, the library is named for Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753 – December 5, 1784), the fi rst published African-American woman and fi rst published African-American poet. The library services a predominantly African-American population and the nearby multicultural historic Cornhill neighborhood.
Workshop Leaders Jordan E. Franklin is the author of the poetry collection when the signals come home (Switchback Books) and the chapbook boys in the electric age (Tolsun Books). She received her MFA from Stony Brook Southampton and is a doctoral candidate at Binghamton University. Her work has appeared in Breadcrumbs, Frontier, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the Southampton Review, Torch Literary Arts, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2017 James Hearst Poetry Prize, the 2020 Gatewood Prize, and the 2024 AWP Intro Journals Project Award. She hails from Brooklyn, NY.

Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose (she/her) coordinates the Creative Writing Program at Monroe Community College. The recipient of two SUNY Chancellor’s Awards, she has published poems, fi ction, and essays in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, Room, Mom Egg Review, Rattle, Women Studies Quarterly, and Feminist Formations, among others. She is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Wild Things, (Main Street Rag, 2021) and Imago, Dei (winner of the Rattle Chapbook Poetry Prize, 2022). Since 2007, she has facilitated writing-as-healing workshops for the Breast Cancer Coalition. Find her on Bluesky @poetlady74 and at www.elizabethjohnstonambrose.com.
Conor (Coco) Tomás Reed is a Puerto Rican~Irish, gender-fl uid, independent scholar-organizer and the author of New York Liberation School: Study and Movement for the People’s University (Common Notions, 2023). Coco is co-developing the quadrilingual anthology Black Feminist Studies in the Americas and the Caribbean (Malpaís Ediciones), is a contributing editor with LÁPIZ Journal and Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, and serves on the Board of Directors for CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies at CUNY.
Bart White is a poet, artist, and the author of the poetry collections The Faces We Had As Children (2014), The Art of Restoration (2022), and Your Session Is About to Time Out, forthcoming from FootHills Publishing in May 2025. He is the past president of the non-profi t Just Poets, which provides community-based programs in Rochester, NY. He hosts The “Little” Poetry Series at the Little Theater Café with fellow poet David Delaney.