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Words to Witness: A Visual Poetry Showcase
“It is always possible to stop looking away”
– Omar El Akkad, One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Held at Hinterland Gallery in Rochester’s historic Brown’s Race District this showcase includes three poets with deep ties to Western NY who incorporate visual elements into their work to heighten the political and personal impact of witnessing.
Diego Espiritu creates concrete poems using typerwriters, where text becomes a material akin to paint, as he explores migration, translation, and silence.
In their debut collection, Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), grace (ge) gilbert processes their grandmother’s murder through collage and found text to create an affective record of grief and truth.
In Again... (Coffee House, 2026) Mark Nowak uses photography and erasure to infuse the research behind his poems into the poems themselves, rendering his documentation of mass shootings and “MAGA” visceral for the reader-viewer.
Join us as we explore and discuss the ways writers and artists combine language with images to transform barriers, bear witness to tragedy, speak truth to power, and document what otherwise might be lost to time.
After presentations by the guests in turn, Writers & Books Artistic Director, Tyler Barton will lead the poets in conversation about the techniques writers use to tackle extreme subjects. Ampersand Books will offer books and the authors will sign copies.
Each of the poets have also contributed a sampling of their visual poetry to the accompanying exhibition hosted at Hinterland Gallery (on view 9/10 through 10/17). In addition, the novelist and illustrator Nicholson Baker will contribute portrait drawings of Palestinian media workers and peace advocates, connecting the themes of this show to those found in ONE DAY EVERYONE WILL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AGAINST THIS by Omar el Akkad, a 2026 Rochester Reads selection.
This reading is presented as part of our Rochester Reads 25th Anniversary programming. This year, we’ve selected Ghostbread by Rochester’s own Sonja Livingston, and Omar El Akkad’s One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, two books that practice witness by centering marginalized narratives of poverty and oppression.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3759473-0
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3759473-2
