Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar 2

Ari Banias’s work takes place in the rich, artful between-space. In the first poem of his newest book, A Symmetry (W.W. Norton, 2021) he writes: “Some men are women too/the way a mountain is land and a harbor is land and a parking lot/Refuse the difference between sameness and difference.” A fresh injection of mutability in a rigid world, his poems capture stills from the unending motion of meaning-making. As writer Gregg Bordowitz says, “Ari Banias attunes to unacquainted frequencies with great precision…alternating between brutal excesses and incalculable joys. Every line holds. Reading this book is like feeling gravity.”

In addition to A Symmetry, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle Award for Trans & Gender Variant Literature, Ari is the author of Anybody (W.W. Norton, 2018). His work has been featured in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, American Poetry Review, and Triple Canopy, among others.

Banias’s reading will be followed by a conversation with Art Middleton. Books will be sold by Broadside Books before the event and a signing will follow the reading.

This October 29 at Upstairs at Bow, meet us under the pig’s blood for a glittering extravaganza of literary naughtiness. It’s time for the Halloween edition of The Poetry Brothel, an immersive literary cabaret!At The Poetry Brothel, a “madam” presents a rotating cast of poets, artists, and artisans who operate within self-constructed characters, “erupting into verse in public and luring guests into back rooms for private readings,” as described in The New Yorker. Central to The Poetry Brothel experience is the creation of character, which for each artist serves as a disguise and a freeing device, enabling The Poetry Brothel to be a place of uninhibited creative expression where artists and audience members alike can communicate more authentically.

Artists performing with the Brothel reflect the diverse identities of our city. Cis and trans women, cis and trans men, genderqueer, genderfluid, and nonbinary folks, people of color, queer, straight, emerging, established, local, and international poets make up our cabinet of poetry whores and brothel beauties. Their alter-egos may be faeries, sirens, witches, aliens, divas, royalty, demons, ancient forests, and everything in between. Some of the artists within The Poetry Brothel universe perform sex work in their off-hours (but not at this event!). The Poetry Brothel uses its platform to support sex workers and to educate audiences about the sex industry. A portion of proceeds from the evening's festivities will go to the Boston Sex Worker and Ally Coalition.

In addition to its poets, The Poetry Brothel presents artists and activists working in a variety of mediums both on stage and through its ever-changing array of intimate, interactive, and creative services.

This event is 21+. Dress for the costume contest!