FEBRUARY 2021
For the public — Natural An/Dems workshop and Reading
Poets of Queens Neighborhood Poetry Workshop
JANUARY 2021
Hair @ Ely Exhibition
DECEMBER 2021
NOVEMBER 2021
OCTOBER 2021
James Baldwin’s America: Both Light and Dark Discussion Series
NYC Artist Corps: PoeTREE/A Tree I Love Project
SEPTEMBER 2021
Out Front 24/7 Banner Exhibition at King Manor Museum from September 8th to September 24th
AUGUST 2021
Natural An/Dems Workshop at Lewis Latimer House Museum
July 2021
June 2021
The Afro Now panel discussion with Neema Githere, Keisha Knight and Stephanie Dinkins
May 2021
Do-Si-Do Chapbook Launch
Made In Queens from South Queens Women’s March
Armstrong Literary
April 2021
Ancestors and Inheritances: Global Edition from Furious Flower RSVP
Threads Exhibition and Reading from Poets of Queens and Bliss on Bliss
Magic Zigns and Vision Binders Workshops for National Poetry Month (Queens Public Library)
The Musical Summit/Cultural Collaborative Jamaica
February 2021
January 2021
The Coop Workshop Class Registration
December 2020
November 2020
Join Queens Public Library’s Open Mic
Memory As Time Capsule Workshops: November 17, December 1, December 15
Jam Journal Launch Event
Mayday Space Ticket Link
October 2020
Your Silence Will Not Protect You! – The Writing of Audre Lorde Humanities New York/Lewis Latimer House Museum Reading & Discussion Series
Link to Poets of Queens Reading
September 2020
Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival — Laureates of the Caribbean
mh Project Description
Traditions Festival Online
August 2020
Jamaica Flux
Jamaica Flux Press Release on QNS
July 2020
Walking The Edge
June 2020
March 2020
Reading at Queens Museum/Free Verse Online Open Mic
Finalist (SAME Nobody Ghazal) for Furious Flower Prize!
January 2020
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
UNY @ BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL: WORDS ON WATER
Join Underwater New York for a reading and conversation with writers-in-residence at the Works on Water/Underwater New York artist residency on Governors Island. The residency provides an incubator space for diverse investigations of water in the urban environment. Underwater New York is a platform for creative work inspired by the waterways of New York City. Moderated by Underwater New York founding editor and Works on Water organizing member Nicki Pombier Berger, the event will feature writers Sherese Francis, Killian Quigley, Supriya Wheat, Tobias Carroll, and Asya Graf.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2:30-4:00pm
Governors Island, Nolan Park 5B
THIS IS AN OFFICIAL 2019 BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL EVENT
WORDS ON WATER is part of the OUR FUTURE FESTIVAL, a day of climate action, ideas and inspiration throughout Nolan Park on 9/21
August 2019
Works on Water Residency (Open Studios Saturday and Sunday in August at House 5B)
Watch conversation here
July 2019
July 24th 6:30-8:30pm at 61 Local (61 Bergen St)
No Dear Magazine Conversation with Eline Marx
Photos from Queens Book Fair
June 2019
Please join us for the launch of Art Like Air and Water, a mobile museum just for southeast Queens! Our Launch Party weekend celebration will include readings and zine making workshops.
Contributors include:
Damali Abrams
Natali Bravo Barbee
Sherese Francis
Jacqueline Herranz Brooks
Marvenia Knight
Rejin Leys
Carla Lobmier
Barbara Lubliner
Sara Nichols
Micki Spiller
Courtney Surmanek
and many more local artists and community members!
May 2019
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE: RENEWAL
May 31, 2019
8:00pm
STORYTELLERS:
Jackie Reason
Sherese Francis
Inspired by artist Monica Jahan Bose whose works revolve around our bond with nature, our footprint both carbon and journeys of immigrants and refugees; and the interconnected essence of communities. Bose – “Water is an enduring theme, speaking to life, climate, sustenance, death, and renewal.”
Spring is a time to return to abundance, the warmth of the weather and our souls; the awakening of things that drive us to be out doors , commune with each other and nature. It is the beautiful propagation of life.
What is your spiritual bond with nature? Has it influenced/changed your carbon footprint? what are some habits/practices/thoughts/projects/rituals, i.e. walking a dog , singing in the rain, you will renew this spring? How will it revive you? How will it uplift and move forward into a season, promote joy, togetherness, fucking and bees? What have you learned from storms? Has the openness and wildness of Mother Nature defines/redefined your gender? Does the little boy/girl within you dream beyond the clouds?
Created five years ago, How to Build a Fire is a community storytelling series where a diverse group of individuals share real-life, personal narratives centered around a different theme each month. At times funny, at times sad, their stories weave together a broad illustration of the human experience. How to Build a Fire takes place at Open Source Gallery -a welcoming, nurturing, intimate, safe environment- where, monthly, one can see a new exhibition installed by an array of up-and-coming and established visual artists. Every year, poet and event founder Terence Degnan partners with Open Source Gallery to select two new co-hosts/curators of HTBAF. This year’s curators are poets Shafina Ahmed and Phillip J. Ammonds.
Watch the Livestream
All/Terras: Science Fiction Art Lab Workshop and Tour for Families
Todas/Terras: Laboratorio de Arte y Ciencia Ficción
Taller y tour para familias
May 25 2019
1:00pm–2:30pm
Español Abajo
A league of time-traveling beings from alternate worlds is heading towards earth to restore peace in the universe!
Join us at Queens Museum for the culminating workshops in a series organized together with Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling. Children and their families will respond to a series of writing and storytelling prompts inspired by the work in the Queens Museum exhibition, Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas and create their own science fiction story of time travel inspired by their family, neighborhood, and culture!
This workshop and tour is ideal for children ages 6 to 10!
The workshop includes a special children’s tour of the Mundos Alternos exhibition where families will interact with the various works in the exhibition. The tour will be led by teaching artists Sherese Francis and Greg Corbino, as well Director of Exhibitions and Curator Hitomi Iwasaki.
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
February 24th, 2019 2:00-3:00pm: Fel Santos: I of Newtown Performance
(QM Theater, 2nd Floor)
Join us at Queens Museum for the culminating performance of Fel Santos: I of Newtown, a multimedia installation by poet Paolo Javier (former Queens Poet Laureate, 2010-14) and musician David Mason (also known as Listening Center) for the Queens Library LeFrak City branch that explores the sound poetry and elusive identity of Woodside poet Fel Santos. Javier and Mason’s installation at LeFrak focuses on the expansive sound poetry of Fel Santos, which draws from his immigrant Pilipinx history, encounters with the occult, and his mother’s own private language. Spanning film, video, sound poetry, and music, Fel Santos: I of Newtown shares the abundant intimacy and innovation of language and communication that is unique to multilingual speakers and postcolonial cultures.
Javier and Mason will be performing with poet Sherese Francis and artist/writer/teacher Emerald Carter.
This performance will be recorded by Montez Press Radio and broadcast on March 31st, 12-1pm.
Image: Film still, Paolo Javier and David Mason, Not Sure You Have One, 2018, digital video. Sean Hanley, editor/dp. Courtesy of the artists.
January 2019
IAWA’s MLK Salon on January 22nd
IAWA’s Blog Recap
Irish Echo
December 2018
November 2018
Fundraiser Gala for Arts Transform Inc. I am an honoree for the Community Service Award!
Join us and Harlequin Creature as it travels to Queens for the first time to host the third installment of its Social Justice Subscription Series readings! This will be the official launch event for the latest chapbook in the series, Zahura Akter’s “Unparallel.” In addition, the other two books in the series, Sherese Francis’ “Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling” and Pamela Laskin’s “Found, But Really Lost,” will be available for sale.
All proceeds for each chapbook will go to an organization of the poet’s choice: purchases of Unparallel go to Voices of Bangla, Found, But Really Lost to Fortify Rights & Variations on Sett/ling Seed/ling to DARDA Dominica.
QUEENSBOUND is a collaborative audio project curated by KC Trommer and supported by a New Work grant from the Queens Council on the Arts. From Long Island City all the way to Jamaica, the poems of QUEENSBOUND map the neighborhoods and the vibrancy and diversity of the borough, embedding audio recordings from leading Queens poets and writers on a subway map, designed by Kyle Richard. Technical support for QUEENSBOUND was provided by Maham Faisal Khan.
QUEENSBOUND Reading and Site Launch – 11/3 at 2 pm
The 7 train, first car
On November 3, 2018, the QUEENSBOUND project will launch with a reading on the 7 line and reception at the Queens Museum.
Join leading Queens writers and poets, including Rosebud Ben-Oni, Malcolm Chang, Catherine Fletcher, Sherese Francis, Jared Harél, Nicole Haroutunian, Abeer Hoque, Safia Jama, Paolo Javier, Joseph O. Legaspi, Ananda Lima, Maria Lisella, Vikas K. Menon, Belal Mobarak, Meera Nair, Maria Terrone, and curator and host KC Trommer, for QUEENSBOUND, a borough-wide writing project. Poets and writers will read original work on the 7 train, beginning at Vernon Blvd Jackson Av stop, before stepping off at Mets-Willets Point and heading over to The Queens Museum for a reception.
See you on the 7! RSVP
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
FROM APARTMENT TO BRYANT PARK: A POETRY SALON GROWS UP on LitHub
June 2018
May 2018
Print Fest and Panel Discussion
Queens Council on the Arts Interview: WHEN ARTISTS UNITE IN A CHANGING COMMUNITY….
Truth to Power Interview: The Speculative Mystery
April 2018
March 2018
Celebrating the upcoming International Women’s Day, March First Friday lines up four inspiring female artists from diverse backgrounds: Takia “Judah” Parham, a United States Army Combat Veteran, theatre artist and poet, will present her poem where she seeks to expose the reality of war, prison, mental illness and self-love; Jamaica-based writer, poet, and literary curator Sherese Francis will display her J. Expressions Popup Library, a literary project that encourages the communications among Southeast Queens authors. The collaboration reflects their passion for innovation via their choreography, composition, and stagecraft. Come and gather around for an evening of feminism, activism, and art! Free and open to all.
No Rest In This Skin + Oxana Chi & Layla Zami + J is a Expressions Popup Bookshop on Friday, March 2, 2018, 7:30 pm at Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, 161-04 Jamaica Ave, Jamaica, New York 11432.
Queens Soup Interview
February 2018
A Literary Afternoon with Malcolm Boyd and Sherese Francis
Between Eye and The Other: Writing With You and Images with Sherese Francis Claudia Rankine’s Citizen explores the fluid relationship between text and visual art as well as the first person, second person and third person points of view. Through this workshop, attendees will look at the writing and imagery in Citizen and write pieces based on prompts inspired by Rankine’s words, use of images, and different points of view.
January 2018
December 2017
Queens Library Open Mic for Poets Feature
Gwen Beloti Cocktail Fundraiser
November 2017
November 18: “Inventing New Wor(l)ds,” Queens Library at Ridgewood
October 2017
Bright Young Collectors: Sherese Francis Interview on Fine Books & Collections Blog
September 2017
Six Young Women with Prize-Winning Book Collections
Night Of Poetry Reading At Jamaica PAC Thrills
August 2017
Three Legged Elephant Book Reading at Jamaica Performing Arts Center
June 2017
April 2017
Women Writers in Bloom 6th Anniversary Celebration
March 2017
Queens Council on the Arts Lab: New Poetry and Fiction Reading
February 2017
Newtown Literary contributor: Sherese Francis
January 2017
Local Writers Host ‘Re-Inaugurate Democracy’ Event
December 2016
November 2016
September 2016
June 2016
Celebrating Books: The Queens Book Festival on Huffpost
May 2016
Brownstone Poets’ Queens Spectacular
April 2016
Poets from Queens event with Poet Laureate Maria Lisella
March 2016
Sherese Francis: Futuristically Ancient 