This event takes place in person at Charis and on Crowdcast, Charis' virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required for virtual attendance. Please read the in-person event guidelines at the bottom of this page to be sure you can participate in the event.

"Meet Me There" is a monthly intergenerational poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction experience curated by trans/genderqueer poet and sound artist Samuel Ace. Writers exploring genre and gender boundaries will be a special focus of this series. This event usually takes place on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm ET. Some months our readings will take place at Charis Books with an option to watch virtually, and some months the event will be fully virtual, so be sure to check the listing!

April's featured poet is W.J. Lofton in celebration of boy maybe: poems. This collection of 51 achingly eloquent poems explores Black queer Southern identity, grief, love, and intimacy while enduring and witnessing unfreedom in America.


W.J. Lofton, a Chicago-born poet and Alabama raised multimodal artist, is the author of A Garden for Black Boys Between the Stages of Soil and Stardust  and his newest collection boy maybe (Beacon Press, Spring 2025). A recipient of Ava DuVernay's LEAP Grant and an artist-in-residency at 100West, Lofton has earned fellowships from Cave Canem and Emory University. His work has been featured or forthcoming in TIME, wildness, Obsidian, Scalawag, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, American Poets Magazine, Prose to the People, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, and film festivals nationwide. Lofton’s constant concern is liberation and its lived manifestations; the personal, political, and collective. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia where he co-curates Rebellion: A Writing Salon, alongside Dominic Anthony Williams.
 
Opening Poet
Dominic Anthony is a Southern, Black, Queer writer whose work explores those identities and what it means to come of age at their intersections. A graduate of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Arkansas State University, Dominic's work often reflects the caring nature of his profession while using imagery and language to create a bridge between the reader and himself. Working as a trauma nurse during the pandemic, they often credits poetry with saving their life during a time of collective global suffering. Ultimately, their goal is for the reader to be immersed in a shared experience where community is not only felt but also built. Some of their work has been published in Bible Belt Queers Zine 3, Beyond Queer Words: A Queer Anthology, and the FLAVAzine Juneteenth Edition. They also share their work on Instagram @tonithepoet and Substack @tonithepoet.
 
Host Poet
Samuel Ace is a trans/genderqueer writer and sound artist. His latest books are I want to start by saying (Cleveland State University Poetry Center 2024), Our Weather Our Sea (Black Radish 2019), and Meet Me There: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash. (Belladonna* 2019). Ace is the recipient of the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry, as well as a repeat finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the National Poetry Series. Recent work can be found in Personal Best: Makers on Their Poems that Matter Most, Essential Queer Voices of U.S. Poetry, Fence, BathHouse, The Texas Review, Poetry, We Want it All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetry, Best American Experimental Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies.

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate or in person at the event.

In-person event guidelines:

All attendees must wear a face mask.

We will begin seating people at 7:00 PM ET.

This event will be live-streamed via Crowdcast. 

As a reminder: If you are not feeling well, please do not come to the event.

If you have any questions regarding these guidelines or to request specific accessibility accommodations, please contact info@charisbooksandmore.com or call the store at 404-524-0304

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don't hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org. 

By attending our virtual event you agree to our Code of Conduct: Our event seeks to provide a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), class, or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Unsolicited sexual language and imagery are not appropriate. Anyone violating these rules will be expelled from this event and all future events at the discretion of the organizers. Please report all harassment to info@chariscircle.org immediately.

Meet Me There: Featuring boy maybe: poems by W.J. Lofton