Buffalo Area Poetry & Literature Calendar (week of April 1-April 8)

Tuesday, 7 p.m.: Just Buffalo Literary Center and the University at Buffalo Poetics program present an evening of readings featuring poets Brenda Iijima, Janice Lee, and Robin Lee Jordan. Books by the poets will be available for purchase from Fitz Books.

Brenda Iijima is a poet, novelist, playwright, choreographer and visual artist. She is the author of nine books of poetry. Her involvements occur at the intersections and mutations of genre, mode, receptivity, and field of study. Her current work engages submerged and occluded histories, other-than-human modes of expression and telluric awareness in all forms. She is the author of A roundtable, unanimous dreamers chime in, a collaborative novel co-authored with Janice Lee (Meekling Press, 2023). A novel, Presence (Georgia Review Press, 2024) and a play, Daily Life in China (forthcoming from elis press, 2024). Iijima is the founding editor-publisher of Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs. She lives in Brooklyn.

Janice Lee (she/they) is a Korean American writer, teacher, spiritual scholar, and shamanic healer. She is the author of 8 books of fiction, creative nonfiction, & poetry, most recently Imagine a Death (Texas Review Press, 2021), Separation Anxiety (CLASH Books, 2022), a finalist for the 2023 Oregon Book Award, and A roundtable, unanimous dreamers chime in, a collaborative novel co-authored with Brenda Iijima (Meekling Press, 2023). She writes about interspecies communication, plants & personhood, the filmic long take, slowness, the apocalypse, architectural spaces, inherited trauma, and the Korean concept of han, and asks the question, how do we hold space open while maintaining intimacy? Lee teaches workshops on inherited trauma, healing and writing, and facilitates guided meditations bringing together elements from several different lineages as a mesa-carrying practitioner of the Q’ero tradition of medicine work and as a practitioner of Engaged Buddhism (in the tradition of Plum Village and Thich Nhat Hanh). She also incorporates elements of Korean shamanic ritual & traditional folk practices, plant medicine & flower essence work, and divination. She currently lives in Portland, OR where she is the Operational Creative Director at Corporeal Writing and an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Portland State University. Follow her online at @diddioz

Robin Lee Jordan is a poet, teaching artist, zine-maker, & collage-based visual artist with an interest in multimodal, interactive, & collaborative creation. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Oregon State University and wrote the chapbooks Morning Blessing Poems (Foundlings Press) and THEY ATE EACH OTHER UP (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs). She occasionally maintains the (B)uffalo (A)rt (D)ispensary, a coin-operated, micro-art dispenser. Robin has worked with Just Buffalo since 2012 as a teaching artist and now acts as the Director of Just Buffalo’s Writing Center, a creative writing program for teens.

Just Buffalo Literary Center, 468 Washington St., 2nd floor, in Buffalo. Books by the poets will be available for purchase from Fitz Books.

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.: CFI Literary Café Series reading hosted by poet Ryki Zuckerman and featuring poets Donna Grace and Anne Huiner. Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Rd., Amherst. Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, 9 p.m.: Poetry Night at Caffe Aroma, biweekly open mic reading series hosted by Ben Brindise and Justin Karcher.  957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo.

Friday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.: The Buffalo AKG Art Museum and Slam for 10K productions present The Exhibition Slam, hosted by spoken word artist and slam coach Marquis Burton. Slam sign up at 6:15 p.m., the first ten poets to sign up get to compete. Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 1285 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo.

Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The Western New York Book Arts Center presents its 16th annual Edible Book Festival, a family-friendly event that takes place at various book arts organizations throughout the world, inviting participants to create edible creations inspired by a book. General admission is $5 at the door ($3 for Book Arts Members). Children under 5 are free. Edible Book Chefs receive two free admissions. Final products must be edible. For more information, visit https://wnybookarts.org/16th-annual-edible-book-festival/.  $8 Non-Book Arts Member, $5 Book Arts Member. Western New York Book Arts Center, 468 Washington St., Buffalo.