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, hosted by Fishtown Community Library, is free and open to the public.

Previous Monday Poet: Mytili Jagannathan

Mytili Jagannathan makes poems that investigate public and private space, power, gender, speech, desire, collectivity, and change. She is the author of Acts (Habenicht Press); and her poems have appeared in EOAGH, Rattapallax, Fanzine, American Poetry Review, and Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry; and in Up Against, a short by filmmaker Sara Zia Ebrahimi for Termite TV. Her awards include a grant from the Leeway Foundation and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

New Monday Poet: Allison Whittenberg

Born in Pennsylvania and educated in New York and Wisconsin, Allison Whittenberg is an award winning novelist and playwright. Her poetry has appeared in Columbia Review, Feminist Studies, J Journal, and New Orleans Review. Whittenberg is a six-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Driving with a Poetic License and They Were Horrible Cooks are her collections of poetry.