Word is Bond: LA & Bronx Fire Benefit Reading

Join us at 144 Montague or online via Zoom for a reading to support those displaced by wildfires in LA and the recent apartment fire in the Bronx, including featured readings by Dante Clark, Cindy Tran, Robert Wood Lynn & DeeSoul Carson. All proceeds will be split between California Community Foundation (CCF) and direct aid initiatives in the Bronx.

Guests can donate to attend on a sliding scale—please contribute what you can. Advance online ticketing for in-person attendance will end at 4:30 PM on the day of the event. After that, guests can get tickets at the door until we reach capacity; tickets for virtual attendance will be available until the start of the readings at 5:30 PM. A Zoom link will be emailed to all ticket holders. Closed captions will be available for the event through the Zoom livestream. For more information and to request additional accommodations, contact us at bkp@brooklynpoets.org.

• 5:00 PM: doors open
• 5:30 PM: readings
• 6:30 PM: event end

After the readings, we encourage folks to get tickets to join us a few doors down at Books Are Magic for the launch of Latif Askia Ba's The Choreic Period where he'll be in conversation with Brooklyn Poets Mentorship Director Jay Deshpande.

Note that by attending this event, you agree to abide by our code of conduct and COVID-19 policy. All in-person attendees for events are currently required to wear masks (regardless of vaccination status) except readers at a safe distance on stage. We will have masks available. Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss from our programs any participant found to be in violation of these policies. Thank you for respecting our community.

About the Series

Word is Bond is a community-centered reading series originally founded and directed by Anthony Thomas Lombardi in 2020. In its initial run, WiB hosted virtual readings on Zoom during COVID-19 quarantine to raise funds for mutual aid organizations, transnational relief efforts and bail funds. Word is Bond was created to harness solidarity and camaraderie among our communities, emphasizing horizontal power structures and mutual aid, and, to paraphrase Bertolt Brecht, “sing during the dark times about the dark times.” It was rebooted at Brooklyn Poets in 2024, with r kay joining Lombardi as co-director.

Previous partners and sponsors include Adroit, Gulf Coast and the Asian American Writers Workshop. Previously featured poets include Kaveh Akbar, Ross Gay, Hanif Abdurraqib, Mahogany L. Browne, Megan Fernandes, Victoria Chang, Hala Alyan and Shira Erlichman. WiB readings have raised thousands of dollars in service of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, Community Justice Exchange’s Emergency Bail Fund and Henry Street Settlement, among others.

Featured readers

Cindy Tran is the author of the poetry collection Sonnet Crown for NYC (2021), winner of the Thornwillow Patrons’ Prize. A recipient of fellowships from NYSCA/NYFA, the Poetry Project, and the Loft Literary Center, Cindy has presented her work at the Shed, Lincoln Center, and the BBC. Cindy’s poems are forthcoming or published in the Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Copper Nickel and elsewhere. She teaches poetry workshops, serves on the board of The Rumpus, and lives in New York City.

Dante Clark is a writer from the Bronx, NY. A two-time Pushcart nominee, his work has been featured in the Root, Afropunk, wildness, Brooklyn Poets’ Poet of the Week, the Slowdown, Adroit Journal and elsewhere. He's received support from organizations including Catapult, Cave Canem, In Surreal Life and NYU's Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House—where he's currently a Goldwater Fellow and MFA Candidate.

Robert Wood Lynn's debut collection Mothman Apologia was the winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and was named a Best Poetry Book of 2022 by the New York Times. His work has been featured in the American Poetry Review, the Atlantic, Poetry Daily, Poetry and other publications. A 2023 NEA Creative Writing Fellow, he teaches creative writing at Juilliard.

DeeSoul Carson (He/They) is a poet and educator from San Diego, CA, currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. His work is featured or forthcoming in Voicemail Poems, Muzzle Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Offing, & elsewhere. A Stanford University alum, DeeSoul has received fellowships from the New York University MFA program, the Watering Hole, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Find more of his work at deesoulpoetry.com

COVID-19 Policy

All event attendees are required to wear masks due to the current prevalence of cases in NYC. Masks will be available at the door.

The current metrics available, including NYC wastewater data and the CDC’s Respiratory Virus Activity Levels, both indicate high levels of COVID and other illnesses. While your personal risk tolerance may vary, the unmitigated spread of COVID and other respiratory illnesses disproportionately affects the most vulnerable in our community—including those who are immunocompromised or don’t have the privilege of paid sick days to heal and recover. We hope you’ll join us in taking the actions we can to make our space welcoming to all and to keep each other safe. Please stay home if you are experiencing symptoms, have a positive COVID test or someone close to you has recently tested positive.

We strongly encourage daytime visitors and workshop attendees to wear masks. Workshop instructors may choose to enforce a more stringent policy at their own discretion. Additionally, workshop participants may be required to wear masks as an accessibility accommodation for other participants.

While we do our best, Brooklyn Poets cannot guarantee zero risk. A risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in all public settings. By entering the building, students, teachers and other attendees accept the risk of exposure and knowingly waive and release Brooklyn Poets from any liability related to COVID-19.

Brooklyn Poets Code of Conduct

Brooklyn Poets will not tolerate any instances of discrimination, harassment or abuse in conjunction with any of our programs. Respect and consideration for others, both within and outside our programs, are core values to be upheld by all participants. Discrimination against and/or harassment of community members on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, religion, age, marital status, veteran status or any other factor is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Program participants are expected to adhere to all federal, state and local laws and regulations. Should a board or staff member, independent contractor, volunteer or program participant be found to violate any aspect of the organization’s code of conduct, Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss them from the program. Consequences may include, but not be limited to, dismissal from the current activity, suspension, ineligibility for all future activities, and/or loss of payment or fees. If you have any issues to report, please do not hesitate to contact anyone on our Conduct Committee and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Interim Director r kay: kay@brooklynpoets.org
Board Director Miller Oberman: miller.oberman@gmail.com