Join us for a special evening of poetry and craft with Sarah Kersey and Destiny O. Birdsong. This free event begins with a one-hour craft talk led by poet and x-ray technologist Sarah Kersey, titled "Deconstructing 'The Body'".

"The body" is ubiquitous in contemporary poetry—how can we write about it in new and exciting ways? How can we honor the complexities of the human form without reducing it to a monolith? In this generative craft session, Sarah will guide participants through an exploration of how poets like Destiny O. Birdsong, Yunkyo Moon Kim, and Derek Walcott write about the body with precision and lyricism. With her unique perspective as an x-ray technologist, Sarah will incorporate medical imagery to help participants merge the form and function of body parts into compelling poetic expression.

Following the class, Sarah will join Destiny O. Birdsong for a reading and book signing.This event is free to attend, but if you’re able, please consider making a donation of $10–$30 to help us sustain these valuable programs at The Porch.

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Sarah Kersey is a poet and x-ray technologist who lives in Boston, MA. Their debut poetry chapbook Residence Time is out now with Newfound. She has received support from Tin House Workshop. Sarah's work has appeared in Columbia Journal, The Rumpus, The Account Magazine, and elsewhere. They tweet @sk__poet.

Destiny O. Birdsong is a writer whose work has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, Poets & Writers, African American Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. She has received support from Cave Canem, Callaloo, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Pink Door, MacDowell, The Ragdale Foundation, and Tin House. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was published by Tin House Books in 2020. Her debut novel, Nobody’s Magic, was published by Grand Central in 2022, was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, was a finalist for the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, and won the 2022 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. She earned her BA in English and history from Fisk University, and her MFA in poetry and PhD in English from Vanderbilt University. In 2022, she was selected as the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s inaugural Writer-in-Residence at Rutgers University-Newark and served as a 2022-24 Artist-in-Residence at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. She is a contributing editor of Poets & Writers Magazine.