Please join us for an evening celebrating the publication of Firespitter: The Collected Poems of Jayne Cortez (Nightboat, 2025), edited by Margaret Busby, with a foreword by Sapphire.

Jayne Cortez (1934–2012)—a renowned member of the Black Arts Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Organization of Women Writers of Africa—was a prolific poet, having published twelve books and nine recordings of poetry, among other artistic collaborations. Now, for the first time, readers can follow over four decades of Cortez’s creative and political life in one comprehensive volume. From her first collection, Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man’s Wares (1969), to On the Imperial Highway (2008), the work is saturated with the blues-inflected sounds, and promises, of liberation; something “unruly, uncompromising & persistent.”

The evening will feature a performance from Cortez’s band, The Firespitters. Denardo Coleman, Cortez’s son, will be on drums. With readings by LaTasha Nevada Diggs, Lois  Griffith, Kyle Carrero Lopez, Aja Monet, Tracie Morris, Quincy Troupe, T’ai Freedom Ford, Rosamond S. King, Tangie Mitchell, Jessica Care Moore, Fred Moten and Brandon Lopez, and Anne Waldman.

This event will also be livestreamed for free on the Project’s YouTube channel.