Chicago, Illinois
You get a diverse, dynamic poetry performance worth the price of admission!
More specifically, you get Poets United to Advance the Arts.
Poets United is a community-based arts organization, located in Illinois, founded by Jennifer Brown Banks.
Since 1994, the group has presented workshops, book signings, and open mic events at libraries, schools, jazz clubs, art galleries, and private functions, to rave reviews.
| CURRENT MEMBERS: |  |
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS: |
| JENNIFER BROWN BANKS | HENRY L. JONES | |
| GAIL MERRIWETHER | RITA GOENS | |
| A.D. MOORE | ||
| MICHAEL BOWIE | ||
| DARYL AVERY | ||
| DEBORAH TAYLOR |
PUBLICATIONS:
In addition to their individual works, the group has collectively produced two anthologies.
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What is love?
Is it the rapture
That elevates the soul
Like the emergence
Of a spring dawn?
And fill the heart
With a sensation
Like no other
It has ever know?
Can it be the blossoming
Of a summer's rose?
Or the repetitive echos
Of a newborn baby's cry?
Perhaps it is the warmth
Of a mother's hand
That wipes away the tears
From an infant's eye
Who is wrought with pain
It can not explain.
Despite the crime,
Despite the grit and grime,
Despite the rhetoric
Challenging his citizenship,
Let the records show
For all the nation to know
For future generations,
And history’s preservation,
That the 1st Black President lived here,
The home of Home Run Inn Pizza,
Buildings tall enough to kiss God,
Frigid winters,
And hot Jazz spots,
Notorious politicians,
Backdrop of fabulously famous writers,
Oprah’s former stomping ground,
Chicago,
More than a “toddlin’ town”
It’s called home for millions,
Where greatness hangs its hat,
A mecca for movers and shakers,
A great source of pride …
~ Jennifer Brown Banks