Poetry Out Loud meets on the 2nd Tuesday between April and September to read and discuss poetry from that month's poet or theme. Pick up selected materials for the month from the Downtown Library Information Desk. Weather permitting, Poetry Out Loud will meet on the back lawn outside of the library. Alternatively, the meeting will in the Downtown Library Community Room.

For our final meeting of 2022 we will be reading selected poems from the internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and 23rd Poet Laureat of the United States, Joy Harjo.

The author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed An American Sunrise, several plays and children's books, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums including her newest, I Pray for My Enemies. She is Exec­u­tive Edi­tor of the anthol­o­gy When the Light of the World was Sub­dued, Our Songs Came Through — A Nor­ton Anthol­o­gy of Native Nations Poet­ry and the editor of Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, the companion anthology to her signature Poet Laureate project. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the first Artist-in-Residence for Tulsa's Bob Dylan Center. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (https://www.joyharjo.com/)