Please join us on Friday, June 5, 2020 at 8:30pm EDT (5:30pm PDT) for a digital reading event supporting Families And Friends Of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC).
In light of the international COVID-19 crisis, we are shifting our events online. Pour a glass of wine, steep some tea, and get cozy for readings about a time these writers surprised themselves.
This event is free, but we encourage donations to Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC).
Readings by: Chanice Hughes-Greenberg, Leah Johnson, Kyle McCarthy, & Lynn Steger Strong
Hosted by: Jami Attenberg
We aren’t charging for this event, but we encourage attendees to consider making a contribution FFLIC.
FFLIC’s mission is to create a better life for Louisiana’s youth, especially those involved in or targeted by the juvenile justice system. This grassroots, inter-generational organization works to transform the systems that put children at risk of prison. Through empowerment, leadership development, and training, FFLIC strives to keep children from going to prison and supports those who have and their families.
Research by health care experts shows that incarcerated populations are most at risk during a public health crisis. Behind bars, youth are not able to participate in proactive measures to keep themselves safe, such as social distancing, frequently washing hands, or staying in sanitized spaces. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, FFLIC is calling on policymakers to protect youth under the supervision of the juvenile justice system.
Meet the Readers
Chanice Hughes-Greenberg is a poet, Capricorn, & playlist enthusiast hailing from upstate New York by way of Long Island. Her work has appeared in Studio Magazine, No, Dear Magazine, The Recluse, & other publications. She has participated in readings with The Poetry Project, Cave Canem, Brooklyn Museum, Poets & Writers, & The Freya Project. She is also the creator of Who Is She, a newsletter that celebrates creative women. Chanice received a BFA in Writing from Pratt Institute & was the recipient of a 2019 Brooklyn Poets Fellowship. She was a finalist for The Poetry Project's 2018-19 Emerge-Surface-Be Fellowship. She resides in Bed Stuy with her cat Huxley & drinks martinis with a twist.
Leah Johnson is a writer, editor and eternal Midwesterner, currently moonlighting as a New Yorker. She is a graduate of the fiction writing MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College and currently teaches in their undergraduate writing program. Leah is a 2021 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow whose work has been published or is forthcoming in BuzzFeed, Autostraddle, Catapult, and Electric Literature among others. She is the author of the young adult novels You Should See Me in a Crown (June 2020) and Rise to the Sun (2021) which are both forthcoming from Scholastic.
Kyle McCarthy is the author of Everyone Knows How Much I Love You, forthcoming from Ballantine Books on June 23rd. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere.
Lynn Steger Strong is the author of the novel WANT which comes out in July. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Cut, The Guardian and elsewhere. She teaches writing at Columbia.