In this public reading, Carnegie Museum of Art partners with City of Asylum to bring you the writings and voices of 6 renowned, award-winning, and nationally recognized authors, who have responded to works of art in 20/20. Pittsburgh’s own Tony Norman will share his thoughts and emcee the event. Come hear their poetry and prose first-hand!

Poets and authors include:

Osama Alomar was born in Syria and now lives as a writer-in-residence at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh. His short story collection, The Teeth of the Comb and Other Stories, was published by New Directions this year.

Ariana Brown is a Black Mexican-American poet and African diaspora studies scholar from San Antonio, Texas. She is the recipient of two Academy of American Poets Prizes and a 2014 collegiate national poetry slam champion.

Jericho Brown (read by Tony Norman) is the recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. His first book, Please, won the American Book Award. His second book, The New Testament, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Yona Harvey is the author of the poetry collection Hemming the Water, winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She contributed to Marvel’s World of Wakanda anthology and co-wrote with Ta-Nehisi Coates Marvel’s Black Panther and The Crew.

Nicole Sealey (read by Tony Norman) is the author of Ordinary Beasts and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the 2015 Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. She is the executive director at the Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

Damon Young is a writer, critic, satirist, and professional Black person. He is a co-founder of VerySmartBrothas, and a columnist for GQ magazine. The Pittsburgh native is also the author of a collection of essays to be published by Ecco.