Join the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Literature Department in celebrating the 30th Anniversary season of Monday Poets. This year’s theme is Sankofa (SAHN-koh-fah), a Twi word from the Akan Tribe of Ghana which loosely implies that to move forward, one must “go back and get it”. In that spirit we will be celebrating at each event a past Monday Poet and introduce a new one. Each month from September 2024 to April 2025 a new Sankofa pair will read at a new library. Monday Poets exists to inspire and connect poets and community members across the city of Philadelphia.

This program will take place in the Skyline Room on the 4th Floor of Parkway Central and is free and open to the public. The event will be led by Philadelphia's current Poet Laureate, Kai Davis. 

Previous Monday Poet: Michele Belluomini

Michele Belluomini’s poetry has been published in many print and online journals, and in various anthologies. Her chapbook, Crazy Mary & Others was a winner in the first Plan B Press competition. Her most recent volume of poetry is Signposts for Sleep Walkers. She was one of the winners of the 12th Annual John and Rose Petracca & Family Award for her poem, "La Befana." She works as Adjunct Library Faculty at Community College of Philadelphia.

New Monday Poet: Raina J. León

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn,sombra : (dis)locate, and the chapbooks, profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. She currently supports poets and writers as faculty at the Stonecoast MFA at the University of Southern Maine.