“The moment of mud is a place of creation when what you know and bring to the world through the clay and water of your being, your culture, your sorrows and tenacity finds its way through you to the page. These eight poems are what each writer has sculpted and woven through words; they are the images moving and still which I hope will add to how you interpret what it means to see and to be, Thick as Mud.”– Editor Jourdan Imani Keith reflecting on Thick as Mud: A poetic response
Join us at City Grind Café inside the Henry to celebrate the publication launch
of Thick as Mud: A Poetic Response with live poetry readings by the contributing writers. As part of the Henry’s
Interpretive Guide series, which gives space to voices outside the institutional museum framework, we partnered with Seattle Civic Poet 2019 – 2022 Jourdan Imani Keith to produce this publication that interprets the artworks in
Thick as Mud from the unique view of poetry. During this event you will hear the poems animated through readings and receive a free copy of the publication.
Feel free to arrive early to walk through the exhibition, then grab a coffee and snack at City Grind Café. Readings will begin at 3 PM.
Contributing Authors: Roberto Ascalon, Aleyda Marisol Cervantes, Amber Flame, Rasheena Fountain, Jourdan Imani Keith, Kamna Shastri, Savannah Smith, Ebony Welborn. Read contributor bios here.
About Jourdan Imani Keith
Seattle’s 2019 – 2022 Civic Poet and Pushcart nominated author, Jourdan Imani Keith has been featured in Forbes and on NPR. Her Orion Magazine essays “Desegregating Wilderness” and “At Risk” appear in the Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology, as well as text books. The founder of Urban Wilderness Project, she leads its R U An Endangered Species™ Women and Whales First: Poetry in a Climate of Change campaign. A recipient of the 2022 US Water Alliance Outstanding Artist prize and a 2018 Americans for the Arts award, her TEDx Talk Your Body of Water became the theme for King County's 2016-2018 Poetry on Buses program. Her essays and poems are in Prairie Schooner, Terrain, Cosmonaut, YES magazine, and Seismic.
