The Literature Department’s Monday Poets series is one of the longest-running programs for adults at the Free Library. This past season’s theme was Sankofa (SAHN-koh-fah), a Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana loosely implying that to move forward, one must "go back and get it." In that spirit, we celebrated a past Monday Poet and introduced a new one at each event. From September 2024 to April 2025, each Sankofa pair read at a different library location.

In honor of this season, each poet contributed a poem to the Literature Department’s The Sankofa Season chapbook, available online on our program page. You can also check out the physical Sankofa Season chapbook from the Free Library's catalog. We want to thank this season’s Monday Poets for contributing to the collection:

• Kai Davis
• Michele A. Belluomini
• Raina J. León
• Vernita Hall
• Lindo Jones
• M. Nzadi Keita
• Mabel Lee
• Jeffrey Ethan Lee 
• Cydney Brown
• Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela
• Andrea Walls
• Trapeta B. Mayson
•  王潇 / Evan Wang
• Mytili Jagannathan
• Allison Whittenberg
• Lawrence Dugan
• Gabriel Ramirez

 This chapbook is dedicated to the poets and poetry of Philadelphia.

Special thanks to the Free Library’s Graphic Design Team for making this chapbook possible.