Ever Young: A Poetry Performance Inspired by the Photography of James Barnor

Join InsideOut Literary Arts and some of Detroit's finest poets for a performance celebrating the photography of James Barnor. Featuring performances by MARS, Kweku Abimbola, La Shaun phoenix Moore, Peace Bell, and Robert Laidler, the event will showcase new poetic works written during visits to the exhibition James Barnor: Accra/ London. 

• Kweku Abimbola is of Gambian, Ghanaian, and Sierra Leonean descent. His first full-length poetry collection, Saltwater Demands a Psalm, won the Academy of American Poets First Book Prize. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writing Program. 
• MARS. is a writer and cultural organizer born and raised in Detroit. MARS is a 2021 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow in Poetry and a 2019 Lambda Literary Art Emerging Writers Fellow in Poetry. Their debut chapbook, FLOWER BOI, is available via Gold Line Press.  
• La Shaun phoenix Moore is a Detroit-based vocalist, spoken word artist, activist and culture creator whose work incorporates personal and cultural influences. She is the recipient of the 2020 and 2021 Creators of Culture Award by CultureSource. 
• Peace Bell is a recording artist, Grand Slam champion and InsideOut Literary Arts writer-in-residence. Peace is the producer and host of the Open Mind Mic Series in downtown Detroit with her husband, comedian J Bell. 
• Robert Laidler is an assistant professor at Wayne State and the author of a poetic libretto, The Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, which premiered at Chamber Music Detroit in 2022. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writing Program.