This celebration of 20 years of Jazz Poetry kicks off with the return of crowd favorite, four-time-returning festival headliner, and critically acclaimed jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis, performing with his quartet. Joining James on the Alphabet City stage are outstanding poets Amit Chaudhuri (visiting all the way from India to share his latest collection), Pittsburgh’s own beloved Toi Derricotte, winner of the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature Shara McCallum, and, returning for her second Jazz Poetry performance, City of Asylum writer-in-residence Olena Boryshpolets.

Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a 40-minute performance by the band, followed by 30 minutes of collaborative performance with the featured poets. In these collaborations, poets share their work while the musicians interpret and accompany their poetry with jazz, adding a unique, improvisational dimension to each performance.