173: PANOPTIC VERSES

“ Panoptic verses will be an evening of poetry from an intergenerational group of writers who have the ability to relate to the world around them. From their 360-degree view of the work the poets like the visual artists in the exhibition critique, interact, and articulate their world views. The multifaceted group of poets will connect with the artworks from the visual artists to find a synthesis between the literary and visual arts. “

• Corey Serrant

ABOUT THE POETS

MICHAEL CHANG (they/them) is the author of many collections of poetry, including SYNTHETIC JUNGLE (Northwestern University Press, 2023) & EMPLOYEES MUST WASH HANDS (GreenTower Press, 2024). They edit poetry at Fence.

Ry Cook is a Brooklyn based genderqueer poet and performer whose work specializes in mythology, digital cultures, and curses, and has been published or are forthcoming in Iterant, Tupelo Quarterly, Thimble Lit Mag, the Nightboat Blog, No Dear Mag, the Poetry Project’s Footnotes Series, and Hot Pink Mag. They are currently working on a chapbook about cringe. They also work as an Events Host for McNally Jackson Bookstore. Alongside Aiden Farell, they co-host the “Unnamed Reading Series” Follow them at Ryan_patrick_cook on instagram.

William Hempel was born in New York City in 1979 and studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.  Trained as a painter, for many years he lived internationally as a visual artist and writer.  Currently, he is writing a PHD dissertation for the European Graduate School and is the director of a private art dealership in downtown Manhattan.  Recent exhibitions of new artworks include a nod from the New York Times in the O’ Flahertys group show in 2022 and shows at Pace Gallery and with the Whitney Museum in 2023.

Zachary Issenberg is a writer, teacher and editor from South Florida. He earned his M.F.A. in Fiction from Columbia University, where he wrote two novels, and a B.A. from Emory University. His writing can be found in Los Angeles Review of Books, The Shoutflower, The Millions, WordsWithoutBorders, and Bookforum. He currently lives and teaches in New York, while writing a novel titled Miami!

David Joez Villaverde holds an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. A CantoMundo fellow, he has received honors from the American Academy of Poets, Best New Poets, and the Black Warrior Review . His work is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, AGNI, and FENCE. He lives in the Hudson Valley and can be found at schadenfreudeanslip.com

Max Kruger-Dull holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. His recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Litro, Roanoke Review, Quarterly West, The MacGuffin, Hunger Mountain, and other journals. He lives in New York with his boyfriend and two dogs. For more, please visit maxkrugerdull.com.

Alonso Llerena is a Peruvian writer, visual artist, and educator. He has earned an MFA from Bard: Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts. He is the winner of the 2023 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Poetry. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Offing, FENCE, Cream City Review, and elsewhere.

Tom Sleigh is the author of eleven books of poetry including winner of the 2023 Paterson Poetry Prize The King’s Touch (Graywolf Press, 2022), House of Fact, House of Ruin (Graywolf Press, 2018), Station Zed (Graywolf Press, 2015), and Army Cats (Graywolf Press, 2011). His most recent book of essays, The Land Between Two Rivers: Writing In an Age of Refugees (Graywolf Press, 2018) recounts his time as a journalist in the Middle East and Africa. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, NEA grant recipient, and winner of numerous awards including the Kingsley Tufts Award, Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, John Updike Award and Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Threepenny Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, Raritan, The Common and many other magazines. He is a Distinguished Professor in the MFA Program at Hunter College and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Ben Tripp (b. 1987) is a writer and performer from Passumpsic, Vermont, currently based in Queens, New York City. His poetry, experimental fiction, and criticism of books & art has appeared with The Brooklyn Rail, BOMB, Hyperallergic, Heavy Feather Review, Whitehot Magazine, Full-Stop Quarterly and on the Poetry Foundation’s ‘Harriet’ blog. He is the author of the e-books What About Fraiser (Gauss PDF, 2015) and The Lemon (Metambesen, 2014). He edited the magazine Gerry Mulligan which remains archived online via his blog (https://benjamintripp.wordpress.com/) and has performed his work at KGB Bar, St. Marks Poetry Project, The Segue Foundation Reading Series and Columbia University. He was a finalist for the National Poetry Series in 2021 and received a NYC City Artist Corps grant that same year. He has also worked as an educator in both public and private schools throughout the city, and works in television & film as a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild. 

Dáreece Walker (b.1989) is an Interdisciplinary Artist and Poet, currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Walker creates figurative narrative based work,  that combines race, identity and politics, into socio political responses.  

Walker received his B.A. in Visual and Performing Arts from the University of Colorado and his M.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts in New York. His work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Hyperallergic.  Walker's Art is in the permanent collection of 21c Museums and Hotels, the University of Colorado, and Yale University Art Gallery. Recent shows include, 'Living In America' at IPCNY, 'Tell Me Your Story' at Kunsthalkade in The Netherlands, and 'Nurturing Strength' at Kent State University Ohio, among others.