Join Just Poets and three visiting artists, painter Nancy Smith, poet Anne Anthony and poet Iris Orpi for the Northeast launch of Nancy's beautiful book, Women Speak: Portraits, Poetry and Prose of the Feminine Experience, an art and literary collaboration between Nancy L. Smith and select women writers.

Using Nancy's paintings of the feminine form as prompts, these writers give voice to unspoken experiences of the heart. Their topics include inspirational muses, relationships with self and others, lost loves, changing roles, misogyny, and the state of our country. Nancy L. Smith resides in her native North Carolina and is an award-winning water media and collage artist who has shown her work frequently in the southeast. Anne Anthony's poetry has been published in Glass Mountain, Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine, Poetry South and elsewhere. Heron Review nominated her poem, She Wants, for a 2018 Pushcart Award. Iris Orpi is a Filipina poet, novelist and screenwriter currently living in Chicago, Illinois. She is the author of the illustrated novel The Espresso Effect and four books of compiled poetry, including Rampant and Golden. Orpi wrote the original story and screenplay for the award-winning film Sons and Brothers. She was a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee and a 2014 Honorable Mention for the Contemporary American Poetry Prize.

Don't forget to bring some poems of your own to share during the open mic portion of the event. Usually readers are allowed 1-3 poems, for a total of three minutes.

This event is hosted by Just Poet’s President, Jennifer Maloney.

The series is curated by Just Poet David Yockel.