Join Wren Hanks to celebrate the release of his chapbook, THE RISE OF GENDERQUEER, with special guests Cyrée Jarrelle Johnson, Hannah Rego, and Raquel Salas Rivera at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop. 

Get your Brooklyn Book Festival weekend started right with POETRY. Wine, seltzer, and snacks (including a top-secret gender reveal cake) will be provided. 

More about the poets: 

Wren Hanks is the author of The Rise of Genderqueer, a 2018 selection for Brain Mill Press's Mineral Point Poetry Series and a finalist for Gold Line Press's chapbook contest. A 2016 Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow, his work has been anthologized in Best New Poets and appears or is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Gigantic Sequins, Waxwing, and elsewhere. He is also the author of Prophet Fever (Hyacinth Girl Press), an Elgin Award finalist, and co-edited Curious Specimens (Sundress Publications). He lives in Brooklyn, and you can find him on twitter at @suitofscales. 

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson is a poet and writer from Piscataway, NJ. SLINGSHOT, their first book of poetry, will be published by Nightboat Books in 2019. Find them on social media at @cyreejarelle or at cyreejarellejohnson.com.

Hannah Rego is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. They are an associate poetry editor at Rabbit Catastrophe Review and a founding editor of ctrl+v, a journal of collage. Their work appears or is forthcoming in Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3, Underblong, Glass, BOOTH, and elsewhere. They live in Brooklyn and on twitter @hannahkalena.

Raquel Salas Rivera es la poeta laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19. Es la primera recipiente del Ambroggio Prize (escogido por Alberto Ríos) de la Academia de Poetas Americanos (Academy of American Poets) por su libro en español con traducciones al inglés, x/ex/exis. También es la recipiente del Primer premio en el Certamen de Poesía del Festival Cultural Queer del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez y el Primer premio en la categoría de Poesía en el Decimosexto Certamen Literario de la Universidad Politécnica de Puerto Rico. Sus poemas han aparecido en revistas tales como la Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apogee y McSweeney’s. Cuenta con la publicación de seis plaquetas y cuatro poemarios. Del 2016-2018 fue co-editora de la revista literaria The Wanderer y actualmente es co-editora de Puerto Rico en mi corazón, una colección bilingüe de volantes de poetas puertorriqueños contemporáneos. Este verano trabajó junto con Raena Shirali, Kirwyn Sutherland y Ashley Davis, organizando un festival de poetas de color titulado We (Too) Are Philly e inspirado por el poema “I, Too” de Langston Hughes. Ama y vive por Puerto Rico, Filadelfia y un mundo libre de la supremacía blanca.

Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. They are the first recipient of the Ambroggio Prize (chosen by Alberto Ríos) from the Academy of American Poets for their dual-language book x/ex/exis, in addition to having received First Place in the University of Puerto Rico’s Queer Cultural Festival Poetry Contest (Certamen de Poesía del Festival Cultural Queer) and First Place for Poetry in the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico’s Sixteenth Literary Contest (Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico’s Decimosexto Certamen Literario). Their work has appeared in journals such as the The Journal of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), Apogee, and McSweeney’s. They are the author of six chapbooks as well as four full-length poetry books. From 2016-2018, they were Co-editor of The Wanderer and are currently the Co-editor of Puerto Rico en mi corazón, a collection of bilingual broadsides of contemporary Puerto Rican poets. This summer, they spent countless hours alongside Raena Shirali, Kirwyn Sutherland, and Ashley Davis organizing a festival with a poc-lineup called We (Too) Are Philly, inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too.” They love and live for Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, and a world free of white supremacy.