Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith, editors of The People's Project, ft. Tiana Clark, Koritha Mitchell, Imani Perry, and Jason Silverstein
When:
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025 7:00p -
8:00p
Where:
Marran Theatre
34 Mellen Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Admission:
$10-$28
Hosted by:
Categories:
Art, Lectures & Conferences, Social Good
Event website:
https://portersquarebooks.com/event/2025-09-11/ticketed-saeed-jones-and-maggie-smith-editors-peoples-project-ft-tiana-clark
Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome poets Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith for the release of the anthology The People's Project: Poems, Essays, and Art for Looking Forward! Anthology contributors Tiana Clark, Koritha Mitchell, Imani Perry, and Jason Silverstein will join for a reading followed by a discussion with Jones and Smith.
This event will take place at OFFSITE at The Marran Theatre in Cambridge. Doors open at 6:30 pm.
TICKETS
This event is TICKETED. There are two ticket types. Purchase tickets here.
1) Option 1 includes admission for 1 person to the event, as well as one copy of The People's Project.
2) Option 2 includes admission only for 1 person.
Additional copies of The People's Project will also be available for purchase at the event.
ABOUT THE PEOPLE'S PROJECT
A liberatory anthology of twenty-six writers—a community in book form—charting paths ahead for action and care in the face of political uncertainty, curated by Maggie Smith and Saeed Jones.
Inspired by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith’s conversations in the wake of the 2024 election, this is a collection of poems, essays, and visual art on what we—individually and collectively—can hold onto, and what we can work towards.
In times of difficulty, with a government working against its own people, we must turn to our friends and loved ones to provide context, language, energy, and hope. The People’s Project offers a range of perspectives, drawing wisdom from their communities and histories: from know-your-place aggression to crip time as a way forward, from finding strength in nature to how trans people provide a guide for the future, and how hope has everything to do with survival.
We hope these meditations and strategies will provide you with inspiration and fortitude for the years ahead.
Featuring original and selected work from Alexander Chee, Chase Strangio, Tiana Clark, Hala Alyan, Aubrey Hirsch, Imani Perry, Abi Maxwell, Victoria Chang, Koritha Mitchell, Jason Silverstein, Alice Wong, Mira Jacob, Aruni Kashyap, Sam Sax, Ashley C. Ford, Marlon James, Eula Biss, Randall Mann, Danez Smith, Ada Limon, Kiese Laymon, Joy Harjo, Jill Damatac, and Patricia Smith.
PRAISE FOR THE PEOPLE'S PROJECT
“Curated by two sterling poets, collecting prose and poetry and visual art, The People’s Project is a 'community in book form' meant to help us all make that better world. With contributions from the likes of Chase Strangio, Imani Perry, Eula Biss, Joy Harjo, Marlon James, Ada Limon, Danez Smith, Mira Jacob, and many more, it’s pretty much certain to inspire.”
—LitHub
"After the election of 2024, poets Jones and Smith looked to their 'mentors, siblings on the page, and friends' for hope and solace, strategies and commiseration. Their collection of 27 essays, poems, and artwork honors that diverse community of writers and artists who share their reflections on how to cope with oppression and how to move forward....All underscore the crucial power of community. A stirring anthology."
—Kirkus Reviews
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Saeed Jones is the author of Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. The poetry collection was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as awards from Lambda Literary and the Publishing Triangle in 2015. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and grew up in Lewisville, Texas. He earned a BA at Western Kentucky University and an MFA at Rutgers University-Newark. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is on Bluesky @TheFerocity.
Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Suit or a Suitcase, Dear Writer, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received a Pushcart Prize, and numerous grants and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collections Scorched Earth; I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, which won the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize; and Equilibrium, which won the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University, where she studied Africana and women’s studies. She is the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College. Find out more at TianaClark.com.
Koritha Mitchell is a professor of English, a cultural critic, and the feminist scholar who coined the term know-your-place aggression. She is author of the 2020 book From Slave Cabins to the White House, and her writing has appeared in outlets such as Time, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and MSNBC. Online, she’s @ProfKori and at korithamitchell.com.
Imani Perry is the National Book Award-winning author of South to America, as well as seven other books of nonfiction. She is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. Perry lives between Philadelphia and Cambridge with her two sons.
Jason Silverstein is a writer and anthropologist in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where is the inaugural writer-in-residence and the founding co-director of the Media, Medicine, and Health Programs. His reporting and essays on racism, health, and human rights have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. He lives in Cambridge with his daughter and best friend, Mallory.
-
Sponsored -
Sponsored -
Sponsored -
SponsoredClimb to the Roof of Crane Estate & Explore Historic Ipswich | Save 15% with Code BOSCAL15
Saturday, Jul 18, 2026 9:30a
Castle Hill on the Crane Estate
