Tune in to hear Teri Ellen Cross Davis discuss her collection of poetry a more perfect Union in conversation with St. Clair Detrick-Jules! This is a virtual event please register in advance here!
In the tender, sensual, and bracing poems of a more perfect Union, Teri Ellen Cross Davis reclaims the experience of living and mothering while Black in contemporary America, centering Black women’s pleasure by wresting it away from the relentless commodification of the White gaze. Cross Davis deploys stunning emotional range to uplift the mundane, interrogate the status quo, and ultimately create her own goddesses. Parenting, lust, household chores—all are fair game for Cross Davis’s gimlet eye. Whether honoring her grief for Prince’s passing while examining his role in midwifing her sexual awakening or contemplating travel and the gamble of being Black across this wide world, these poems tirelessly seek a path out of the labyrinth to hope.
About the Author:
Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of Haint: poems, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and works as the Poetry Coordinator for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.
About the Moderator:
St. Clair Detrick-Jules Born and raised in Washington, DC, St. Clair Detrick-Jules is a filmmaker whose work focuses on social justice. A graduate of Brown University, she advocates for marginalized communities.