Jazz Poetry Month brings so much talent to the stage, it’s hard to believe we’re only halfway through! Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a full set from a live jazz band, followed by a collaboration with local and international poets. In these collaborations, poets share their work alongside the musicians, the two art forms melding to create that signature Jazz Poetry improvisational style that offers something exciting, new, and unique with each individual performance.

This performance welcomes widely acclaimed violinist Zara Zaharieva, whose international jazz quartet fuses the sounds and rhythms of the members’ home countries: Bulgaria, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Joining the fusion are incredible poets Reginald Dwayne Betts, MacArthur genius, poet, lawyer, and founder of Freedom Reads; LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, a poet and sound artist whose latest work, Village, is described by Camille Dungy as “part instruction manual, part celebration, part dance party, part garden tour”; Volodymyr Rafeyenko, a writer, poet, translator, and literary critic from Kyiv, Ukraine, who became a Writer-in-Residence at City of Asylum following the outbreak of Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2022; and Anouar Rahmani, an Algerian novelist, journalist, activist, and Writer-in-Residence at City of Asylum whose literary work boldly challenges societal norms and advocates for freedom of expression, LGBTQ+ rights, and social justice.

Featured Musicians:

Zara Zaharieva: violin

Stu Mindeman: piano

Joshua Ramos: bass

Juan Pastor: drums