A poetry reading & community potluck featuring Gabrielle Calvocoressi & Jordan Bailey! Food, Poetry, & Community! Free & public! Bring a dish to share if you like!

Join us for a poetry reading & community potluck featuring Gabrielle Calvocoressi & Jordan Bailey. Celebrate Calvocoressi, whose collection, The New Economy, was a Finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry, and Bailey, who was just named the 2026 GoodLit Fellow.

About The New Economy, the National Book Foundation Judges Citation says this: “With lyrical precision and emotional depth, this incandescent collection explores transformation, resilience, and the quiet power of persistence.” Publishers' Weekly says, ""Survival is revolutionary in this brilliant collection."

If you’re bringing food, please —

** avoid common allergens (like shellfish & peanuts);
** label the ingredients; &
** indicate on the label if it’s gluten-free, vegan, etc.

Support Carolina Migrant Network: On view in the Goodyear Arts gallery is KEEP PUSHING, a political response pin-up exhibition. All art sales benefit Carolina Migrant Network, so please purchase! The gallery will open at 6pm.

About the featured poets:

Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing (a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize), and Rocket Fantastic, winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Calvocoressi is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship from Stanford University; a Rona Jaffe Woman Writer's Award; a Lannan Foundation residency in Marfa, TX; the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review; and a residency from the Civitella di Ranieri Foundation, among others. Calvocoressi's poems have been published or are forthcoming in numerous magazines and journals including The Baffler, The New York Times, POETRY, Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Tin House, and The New Yorker. Calvocoressi is an Editor at Large at Los Angeles Review of Books, and Poetry Editor at Southern Cultures. Works in progress include a non-fiction book entitled, The Year I Didn't Kill Myself and a novel, The Alderman of the Graveyard. Calvocoressi was the Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow at the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute for 2022 - 2023. Calvocoressi teaches at UNC Chapel Hill and lives in Old East Durham, NC, where joy, compassion, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice. Their new collection of poetry, The New Economy, is a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry.

Jordan Bailey is a 28 year old poet, teaching artist, and curator out of Charlotte, NC. Jordan began his journey into poetry at 16 years old, joining BreatheInk Poetry and becoming their grand slam champion twice. After aging out, Jordan continued the work, becoming a coach and teaching artist for the same organization as well as emerging as a star in the adult poetry slam community. He is a part of the 2018 National Poetry Slam Champions and the 2019 Slam Madness Champion. He is a graduate fellow of The Watering Hole, a writing retreat for writers of color. In the Spring of 2025, he became an artist in residence with Goodyear Arts. Jordan's work is built on expanding minds and world building.

About event partner Troubadour Booksellers: As an independent bookstore, Troubadour Booksellers takes pride in offering a carefully curated collection of new books in a welcoming, inclusive space. Our company was founded by Scott Tynes-Miller in 2024 as a community bookstore for East Charlotte residents and visitors.