ONLINE: Watershed Reading Series

media release: Join ALL for our second reading of 2021, featuring poets Brittany Rogers, Lauren Russell, Nicholas Nichols, and Ayokunle Falomo. The reading will be followed by a brief Q&A with the poets. This event will be streamed live on our YouTube channel and on our Facebook page.

Ayokunle Falomo is Nigerian, American, and the author of African, American (New Delta Review, 2019) and two self-published collections. A recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center and MacDowell, his work has been featured in/on Write About Now, The New York Times, Houston Public Media, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Texas Review, New England Review, and elsewhere. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from University of Houston, a Specialist in School Psychology degree from Sam Houston State University and is currently an MFA (Poetry) student at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program.

Brittany Rogers is a poet, mother, educator, and native Detroiter. She has work published in Vinyl Poetry and Prose, The Offing, Tinderbox Poetry, and The BreakBeat Poets: Black Girl Magic Anthology. Brittany is a fellow of  VONA/ Voices, The Watering Hole, Poetry Incubator, and Pink Door Writing Retreat. She is also Co-Editor in Chief for Muzzle Magazine. 

Lauren Russell is the author of Descent (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2020) and What’s Hanging on the Hush (Ahsahta Press, 2017). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Cave Canem, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her work has appeared in various publications, including the The New York Times Magazine and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day. She was assistant director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2020. In the fall of 2020, she joined the faculty of Michigan State University as an assistant professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities and director of the RCAH Center for Poetry.

Nicholas Nichols (He/They) is based in Brooklyn, NY. They are an intersectional nerd and obsessed with talking/thinking/writing about all things creative and human.