Treasure Redmond hosts Cave Canem Reading in St. Louis, MO

Natasha Ria El-Scari was one of the poets who read at the event hosted by Treasure Redmond

Friday evening, April 19, poet Treasure Redmond organized and hosted a reading here in St. Louis. The reading featured several Cave Canem poets, including Gustavo Aybar, Natasha Ria El-Scari, Monica Hand, Nicole Higgins, Rickey Laurentiis, Aisha Sharif, and Phillip Williams. Treasure read, and the headliners were Adrian Matejka and Carl Phillips.

There was a really good turnout for the event, which was sponsored by the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. The reading was held at the organization's Vaughn Cultural Center, and among other reasons, the gathering was notable for drawing a considerable number of black and white audience members. So often, poetry readings draw black or white audiences, but rarely both. 
 
There were short musical interludes by DJ Needles between each of the readings and during the brief 3-minute intermissions, which took place after sets of 4 poets read their works. Treasure mentioned getting that idea for short intermissions from a local artist who figured that it was necessary to break things up so that audiences won't become too bored after sitting and listening to poet after poet.

I spend a considerable amount of time listening to audio recordings of poets and reading the works of poets on the page. Thus, attending live readings like the one Treasure organized are good for catching poetry out in the world.

From the reading:
• Photos from the reading hosted by Treasure Redmond 
• Adrian Matejka reading from his Jack Johnson book in St. Louis    
• The poet as organizer: Treasure Redmond  
• Monica Hand reads in St. Louis  

Related:
• A Notebook on Treasure Shields Redmond