Queens residents with a passion for the arts can celebrate National Poetry Month at St. John’s University, which is hosting a series of readings and lectures on its Queens campus in April.
Titled “Spring Poetry in Performance,” the event will feature a lineup of poets, followed by a Q&A session led by professors Lee Ann Brown, M.F.A., Department of English, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Erica Hunt, 2025 Peter P. and Margaret A. D’Angelo Endowed Chair in the Humanities.
National Poetry Month, established in 1996, is celebrated each April to highlight the significance of poetry and its impact on American culture. Over the years, it has become one of the nation’s largest literary celebrations, engaging millions of readers, students, educators, librarians, booksellers, publishers, and poets.
St. John’s University, located at 8000 Utopia Parkway in Jamaica, is a leading institution known for its strong liberal arts programs and cultural events. The Spring Poetry in Performance series will be held at St. Augustine Hall’s University Writing Center, a key academic hub on campus. The events are free and open to both the St. John’s University community and the general public.
The Spring Poetry in Performance series will offer attendees the opportunity to engage with distinguished poets and explore poetry’s role in literature and society. The full event schedule is as follows:
Monday, April 7, featuring Stephanie Burt
1:50–3:15 p.m., University Writing Center, St. Augustine Hall
Stephanie Burt is a poet, critic, editor, and Donald P. and Katherine B. Lokar Professor of English at Harvard University.
Some of Burt’s works include “We Are Mermaids” (2022); “Parallel Play: Poems” (2006); “After Callimachus” (2020); “Advice from the Lights” (2017); “Belmont” (2013); and Popular Music (1999). She is also the editor of the anthology “Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry After Stonewall” (2025).
Thursday, April 24, featuring Tonya M. Foster
1:50–3:15 p.m., University Writing Center, St. Augustine Hall
Tonya M. Foster is a Black feminist scholar, poet, essayist, and the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in Poetry at San Francisco State University. Foster is the former Lisa Goldberg fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. She is the author of multiple works of poetry, including “A Swarm of Bees in High Court” and “La Grammaire des Os,” and co-editor of “Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art “(Teachers & Writers Collaborative). Foster’s writing and research centers on ideas of place and the intersectionality of the visual and written.
Monday, April 28, featuring LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs
1:50–3:15 p.m., University Writing Center, St. Augustine Hall
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is a writer, vocalist, and performance and sound artist. Nevada Diggs is the author of “Village” (2023) and “TwERK” 2013), as well as the co-editor of Coon Bidness.
The artist has presented and performed at various national and international venues, including the California Institute of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Walker Art Center, and at festivals, including Explore the North Festival in Leeuwarden, Netherlands; the Hekayeh Festival in Abu Dhabi; and the International Poetry Festival of Copenhagen.
In 2020, Nevada Diggs received a C.D. Wright Award for Poetry from the Foundation of Contemporary Art, a Whiting Award (2016), and a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship (2015). Other achievements include grants and fellowships from Cave Canem, Creative Capital, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the US-Japan Friendship Commission.
