Danez Smith to grace the Linen District with Poetry and Performance.

Boise will have its own poet’s corner of a sort later this month, when the Modern Hotel hosts three nationally known poets who will be stepping across the street to read and perform at the Linen Building. Poetic heavy-hitter Danez Smith will bring their particular—and particularly relevant— poetry and performance art to the stage alongside Yoshyhwh Ben Yisrael and local K Lange at the Linen Building at 7 p.m. on November 27th, as part of The Cabin’s Ghosts and Projectors reading series.

Danez Smith is a Black, Queer, Poz writer and performer from St. Paul, MN, the author of Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), who has won numerous awards and commendations including becoming the youngest recipient of the Forward Prize for best poetry collection, and been featured in the New York Times, Poetry magazine, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Yoshyhwh Ben Yisrael is a performance poet, storyteller, and writer who has participated in the performance poetry community since 2005. His performance accomplishments are many, both nationally and internationally, and he is the co-founder of Mic Check, one of the largest and longest running poetry readings in Texas. And K Lange is a writer, teacher, and UFO seeker from Boise, Idaho, whose work can be found in Sink Hollow, Uproot and their self-published collections.

What these CVs can’t express is the combined power of these poets’ presence and words. Bigger than grief, deeper than love, strong and hypnotic, the work of these writers taps into the root of spoken word, an art that lives in the mouths of those who speak it and the hearts of those who hear it. This promises to be a memorable evening that will compel a true presence on the part of the audience. Come to the Linen Building November 27th and find out what poet Yoshyhwh Ben Yisrael means when he says, “Note to darkness: we are coming for you.” ❑

Discover Danez Smith’s work here.

Listen to VS podcast from Poetry Foundation with hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith here.

RSVP to the reading here.

Cover photo by Daniel Schaefer.