Event Recap: Reading Party with Danez Smith
Danez Smith reads from two works-in-progress
Danez Smith reading.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
3500 Bloomington Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55407
Image Gallery
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Anne Ishii, Program Director, addresses the audience at Modus Locus.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
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Danez Smith reading.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
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Strive Publishing selling books at the reading.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
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Danez Smith signs an attendee's books.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
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Danez Smith with his husband, mother, and other attendees.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
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Sara Slawnik, Chief of Staff, speaks with Kay Takeda.
Photo by Thai Phan-Quang.
"As an artist, so much of what we do is play," Danez Smith remarked during their poetry reading at Modus Locus in Minneapolis on October 18. In that spirit of play, the dynamic poet read selections from two works-in-progress, including some poems read aloud for the first time, to a crowd of around forty people.
In this intimate setting, Smith shared how various poems came to be on flights, in mourning, and in love. Love, in fact, is the through line they draw through their oeuvre: "I make work so that people can love themselves and the world more," they said during the Q&A.
The afternoon concluded with crowdsourcing potential titles for their forthcoming collection about time, due in 2027. Suggestions included Phases, Tempo, Time Signatures, For Now, and New Chronologies, among others.
Follow them on Instagram for more readings and updates: @danez_smif.
