The Unspoken Word, a literary nonprofit that hosts open mics and poetry slams around town, presents Celebrate Black Poets, an evening that, well, celebrates black poets. On Tues. Feb. 20 at 7:37 p.m. (yep), head to PURE Theatre for an evening of spoken word from featured poet Glenis Redmond, as well as an open mic with readings of poems by black poets.

Redmond is the poet-in-residence at The Peace Center for Performing Arts in Greenville, S.C., and at State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. In Feb. 2016, at the request of the U.S. State Department, Redmond traveled to Muscat, Oman to teach a series of poetry workshops for Black History Month. She’s served as the mentor poet for the National Student Poet’s Program to prepare students to read at the Library of Congress, the Dept. of Education, and for first lady Michelle Obama at the White House.

Phew. Oh, and did we mention she’s a Cave Canem fellow, North Carolina Literary Fellowship Recipient, and Kennedy Center teaching artist? Check out all of Redmond’s accolades, and some of her work (we’re partial to “Carolinese“) online at glenisredmond.com.

In addition to Redmond, any and all poets are invited to speak during the open mic portion of the evening. Poets are asked to read poems from black poets — be it Maya Angelou or your neighbor down the street — and interested speakers can sign up online.

If you want to read a poem but don’t know which poet to choose, just follow Unspoken Word’s Facebook, which will post about one black writer every day in the month of February.

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