The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry | Ann Arbor District Library

1. Autobiographies 2. Granny Is The Revolution 3. Blood 4. My Self Portrait #1 (After Adam Zagajewski 5. What The Bullet Said 6. Goodbye To The Gods 7. The Garden (Where My Sister Used To See Me) 8. Family Time 9. Boogie On, My Darling (For Bridget) 10. Fuck A Brain 11. Stone Soup Bones 12. Detroit Dream World 1 - 4 13. Community Service Blues 14. Laid Off At the Laugh Factory (for Michael Richards) Artist Statement: Mourning is an inconvenient life-giving necessity. It is painful, yet oh so important, to mourn, to allow your world to break with recognition of what has moved along, what has been loved and lost. Even as the world seems to go on as if nothing has happened. My poetry hopes to open a space for healing within these cracks in so-called normality. You’ll find here speculative worlds, surrealism, musicality, metaphysics. I hope that my attempts to poem the vulnerability I need gives you something valuable also. About the Poet: Owólabi Aboyade is a multidimensional father/ essayist/ poet/ critic/hip hop artist (Will See Music) from Detroit. His poetry chapbook, Lee, Young Lee was published by AWE Society Press in 2024. He is a contributor to Riverwise, Geez, Therapeutic Edgelands, and Against The Current magazines. Working with his partner, sculptor and indie publisher Bridget Quinn, he is text editor of Bullet*Train, a magazine chronicling Detroit’s revolutionary culture and making meaning, a zine for people with chronic illness. He’s currently working on collapse, collected essays about grief, culture, and family in gentrifying Detroit. Owólabi has been named a Tin House Resident as well as a Radical Imagination Fellow for advancing Detroit’s culture of racial justice via arts. He is a community partner of the abolitionist collective Motor City Mobile Wellness and has been navigating kidney failure and the medical industry since 1990. He is a Kwame Dawes Mapmaker Fellow in Pacific University’s nonfiction MFA program (class of 2025).

1. Du’a #10 Contrapuntal With My Mother’s Wisdom 2. Journey to Iraq 1 (I try to visit in my dreams and am stopped on the tarmac) 3. Dream Market  4. Dream Market 5. چمة 6. American Dream Market 7. Dream Market (silly sonnet for l) 8. رشاد  9. طین Noor Al-Samarrai is a deeply committed poet, journalist, and educator who earned her MFA in creative writing at UM-Ann Arbor, where she was recognized as an “exceptional talent who can produce singular work that opens our eyes to the wide range of human experience.” As an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, she studied with C.S. Giscombe, Robert Hass, and Lyn Hejinian. Noor developed an enduring love of teaching during this time, directing poetry workshops for the campus spoken word community, and further cultivated her journalistic practice. Her undergraduate thesis in political economy focused on the relationship between architecture and identity in mid-twentieth-century Baghdad. This work illuminated a lack of complex, human stories in the literature describing Baghdad and set Noor on the path to fashioning her own archive of Iraqi oral histories about pre-war Baghdad. Following her graduation from UC Berkeley, Noor pursued the life of an itinerant writer and independent scholar, first in Turkey where she volunteered as an Arabic translator for NGOs serving refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Somalia, freelanced as a journalist, and met many members of her extended family — themselves refugees from Iraq — for the first time. Then, with the support of a Fulbright fellowship, Noor moved to Amman, Jordan and dedicated herself to gathering oral histories for a documentary poetry collection about the emotional cartography of pre-war Baghdad. Noor has also worked as a journalist for Atlas Obscura, toured in 11-piece punk band Sloppy Jane, worked as a podcast producer, and written a book of fieldwork-derived poetry, “EL CERRITO,” published with Inside the Castle Press in 2018 and recipient of an honorable mention from the 2019 Arab American Book Awards. As a post-graduate Zell Fellow in poetry, she has continued work on her second book, continuing her oral history work in partnership with the Arab American National Museum’s Community History team and Allied Media Projects. Noor is partially deaf and blind, and her favorite sense is touch.  Artist Statement:  At its best, poetry offers us a form of meaning-making, amulets to carry, worry, and return to when the world becomes unrecognizable. These poems emerge from my own meaning-making practices: dreams, travels with friends, conversations with my mother and other elders, the formalized practices of oral history and historiography … In my lifetime, I haven’t yet managed to see Baghdad as a result of ongoing troubles (war, sanctions, occupation, etc). This saddens me. These are some glimpses from my practice of looking lovingly and carrying this place with me, from afar.

1. Sculpture 2. Half Full Moon 3. Trying To Reach The Ocean 4. Spring Visions 5. April Night 6. Versos De Terra Primavera 7. Moons Enough 8. New York Poem 9. Summer Solstice Ode 10. My Body Held You in Water 11. For Kim 12. Solstice List 13. Aquarius Supermoon Carmen Malis King is a Detroit-rooted writer, mother, community herbalist, and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach. She is a former editor of Critical Moment, and her writing has been published in The Wayne Literary Review and Ofrenda Magazine. Carmen holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Women’s Studies from Wayne State University and a Master of Arts in Integrative Health Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. King reads excerpts from her 2024 poetry chapbook “Now/Again Collected Writings 2008-2018”, published by Awe Society Press, designed by Bridget Quinn of Awe Society Press.

1. Please Forgive Me 2. The Last Harvest 3. July at Valley Drive 4. Nearly 5. You Lied To Me 6. I’ll Talk To God When You Stop Answering 7. Must I Marry Elvis 8. Pittsburgh Diorama Sarah Good-Lang is a poetry writer from Pittsburgh, PA now living in Ann Arbor, MI. She graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 2024 with a BA in History & English Writing. Her poems have been featured in publications such as The Northern Appalachia Review and her short story "Footage Lost" won 1st Place in The Pitt News annual writing contest. Much of her writing relates to the concept of the living past. Her writing focuses on subjects such as abandoned structures, families that remain together only within picture frames, and the imprints of the ghosts we carry with us. Sarah enjoys blending creative writing with historical research and finding the shared space between the discovery of the past and the translation of it. She likes to hike, read, paint, and visit the lost photos section of antique stores.

1. And So Comes The Night 2. Untitled Poem 3. I’m Alone and I’m Walking 4. For Carter 5. November Yesterday 6. Lavendar Lady 7. Connies House 8. I’d Like To Be A Child Again 9. Happy Lobsters About the Artist: Katie Geddes is a lover of music, poetry, and words. She likes arranging words for the way they sound as well as for the way they look on the page. Her poetic influences include her mother, her second-grade teacher, and poet/musician, Patti Smith. Her favorite current poet is Brian Bilston. Katie has been a financial planner for 40 years and a singer for 25 years. For 25 years, she has been the director of the Green Wood Coffee House Series, a popular acoustic music concert series. She sings regularly at senior residences and in concert halls. Katie is the music director at Grass Lake United Methodist Church.

1. Rainbow after “The Night Blooming Cereus” 2. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus after “The Peacock Room” 3. Lying in Bed, Thinking of Dumplings after “Elegies for Paradise Valley” 4. Chinatown Koan after “Words in the Mourning Time” 5. Manistique, Michigan after “Stars” 6. Primavera after “Monet’s Waterlilies” 7. Fairytale after “Theme and Variation” 8. A Ringlet in a Ruth Asawa Sculpture after “[American Journal]” 9. January after “October” 10. Murmuration after “A Plague of Starlings” Bio: Shannon Rae Daniels is a writer and visual artist whose recent work has explored questions of impermanence, goodness, language, and beauty as they relate to the self and to communities at large — particularly American Chinatowns. Her art and writing have been recognized by the Poetry Society of America, the Random House Creative Writing Awards, The Guild of Artists & Artisans in Michigan, and the Ann Arbor District Library. She has taught arts and humanities classes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Arts Academy. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is a bookseller. Artist Statement: These poems were commissioned by the AADL for the AADL 200 in response to the poetry and legacy of Robert Hayden. As someone who’s drawn to poetry that is driven by philosophical and formal elements, it was a joy to grow as a poet through this project. In my work, like Hayden’s, I too try to understand how art and beauty can wrestle with difficult questions.

1. Pied Piper 2. Heiligenstadt 3. Ode To The Violin 4. Technical Solace 5. Blood and Soil 6. Survivor Guilt Rebecca G. Biber is a collaborative pianist and music teacher living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Cutthroat, Lilith, The Lyric, The Passionfruit Review, The Petigru Review, and the forthcoming Bop Book. She was shortlisted for the 2024 Building Bridges Poetry Prize and the Northwind Writing Award, and was named a winner of the “Up a Tree” eco-poem contest. Her first book, Technical Solace, was published in 2017 by Fifth Avenue Press. She holds BM and MM degrees from the University of Michigan School of Music and an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte. Artist Statement: Often I write about the practice of music: what it means to us, how it changes us. In other pieces, I use the musical elements of poetry–such as internal rhyme, rhythmic stress, consonance, and repetition–to talk about non-musical subjects. All of these poems speak about the needs of the body, which precede language and demand to be expressed.

1. Did you Eat means I Love You 2. Poignant Truth, Precarious You, and Preparing for the Sriracha Apocalypse, an Excerpt 3. Crying on Airplanes 4. Tsundere Pride or You Are So Prickly, An Excerpt 5. What ever happened to Wang Da Zhong? 6. You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair is in Braids 7. Grandfather Walking 8. Academic Love Affair 9. The Arteries of our City 10. The Traveler 11. Ready to Take Flight 12. Running Hero 13. The Dinner Party 14. Suddenly Spring Artist's Statement "When I was on my high school’s speech and debate team, I read Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News every week. I came across an article about how Asian Americans were good at math and science but were not good leaders. I believed it without question because I thought that if it was published, it had to be true. My father simply said, “China has a 4,000 year history — who do you think was leading it?” I suddenly realized that because I come from a different background, there are things that I can see, connections that I can make, stories that I can tell that others cannot. Slowly, I came to trust the questions that only I was asking. Over time, I realized that because I am privileged to be educated, English speaking, and a U.S. citizen, I should use my privilege to speak up for others. I push back because I can, because someone has to. I write the stories that no one else is writing. And I always stop to translate for lost Chinese grandmas. I am one of a handful of writers who has been writing consistently for and about Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Arab American diasporic communities for over twenty years. I have written as a journalist, essayist, and prose poet. My next project is a book called, “Writing to Save the World.” In these political times, especially with the new Republican administration, the war in Gaza, and increasing anti-immigrant hate and violence, we must find commonalities and ways to better understand each other. Through writing and creating art, we can change hearts, lift up communities, and move people to action." - Frances Kai-Hwa Wang Artist Bio Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a poet, essayist, journalist, and scholar focused on issues of Asian America, race, justice, and the arts. The child of immigrants, she has worked in philosophy, journalism, ethnic new media, anthropology, international development, nonprofits, and small business start-ups. Her writing has appeared at PBS NewsHour, NBC Asian America, PRI Global Nation, Angry Asian Man, Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, Drunken Boat, and several anthologies, journals, and art exhibitions. She has taught Asian/Pacific Islander American studies at the University of Michigan and creative writing at the University of Hawaii Hilo and Washtenaw Community College. She was Executive Director of American Citizens for Justice and Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce. She is a co-founder of IS/LAND Asian American Contemporary Performance Collaborative. She co-created a multimedia artwork for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, “Dreams of the Diaspora.” She has written three chapbooks and a book of prose poetry, “You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids,” Wayne State University Press, 2022. In Chinese School, she was often scolded for having the best spoken Chinese in class and the worst written Chinese. About the Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry The Ann Arbor District Library, Fifth Avenue Studios, and 1473 are proud to present The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry. This series was created to celebrate and document the art of poetry in recorded form. Featuring poets from Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond, we hope that this series showcases and archives the incredible poetry scene here in Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond. The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry is named after and dedicated to two of my high school teachers, Judi Coolidge and Tom Wagner (RIP) of Bay High School (Ohio), who encouraged in me, as well as thousands of their other students, a lifelong appreciation and open-minded love of the arts. -Chien-An Yuan, 1473

1. A Wat Is To Temple As To Escape Is To Survive 2. A Discussion of Monsters 3. An Archaeology of Snow Forts 4, Babylon Gallery 5. Burning Eden One Branch At A Time 6. Cameos 7. DemocraCIA 8. E Pluribus Unum 9. Five Fragments 10. In The Beginning 11. Jaew: Hot Sauce 12. Japonisme, Laoisme 13. Khop Jai For Nothing, Farangs 14. Returning 15. The Buddha of Bombies 16. Ypsilanti, 1982 17. Zelkova Tree 18. Sticky Rice Blues Artist's Statement "These particular poems are from his new collection American Laodyssey (Sahtu Press, 2025) that features many of his most noteworthy pieces from the last 3 decades that appeared in global anthologies, newspapers and journals, exhibits, and other distinctions. This set addresses many of his concerns that emerged from a journey spent recovering the lost histories and stories from the US Secret War in Laos in the 20th century, and how we probe memory and dream, loss and opportunity in diaspora. What is the role of the imagination as a community makes a transition from centuries of a monarchy to a democracy? What happens to our innermost fantasies and hopes as refugees and immigrants?" - Bryan Thao Worra About the Poet Bryan Thao Worra is a Lao American poet who grew up in Michigan in the 1980s and 90s. He is the first Lao American to receive a Fellowship in Literature from the National Endowment for the Arts. From 2016-2022 he was president of the International Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. One of the most widely-published Lao American writers in the world, he has over 20 awards for leadership and community service, and presented at the 2012 London Summer Games, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, Poets House, the Singapore Writers Festival, and more. In October 2024 he was inducted into the Saline Area Schools Hall of Fame. About the Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry The Ann Arbor District Library, Fifth Avenue Studios, and 1473 are proud to present The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry. This series was created to celebrate and document the art of poetry in recorded form. Featuring poets from Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond, we hope that this series showcases and archives the incredible poetry scene here in Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond. The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry is named after and dedicated to two of my high school teachers, Judi Coolidge and Tom Wagner (RIP) of Bay High School (Ohio), who encouraged in me, as well as thousands of their other students, a lifelong appreciation and open-minded love of the arts. -Chien-An Yuan, 1473

1. Coshocton Tribune 2. Before (What was there…) 3. Before (The cares…) 4. Before (I call you…) 5. Tide Pool Mammal 6. Goldenrods 7. Subject Lines 8. Un-titled Artist's Statement "These poems are meditations on ancestry and descent. They start with my more recent ancestors and move back in time through assimilation and colonization, back to home, far, far back through my ancestors across species to the beginning of life. Then they move forward again with a new understanding of what ancestry means, coming through the present to the future into a vision of interconnectedness, joy, sorrow, and love." - Emily Nick Howard About the Poet Emily Nick Howard is a small potato (said lovingly) poet, writer, and maker. They have lived in the Ann Arbor area for over 15 years and very lightly hold a doctorate in English from the University of Michigan. You can find more of their work at emilynhoward.com. About the Cover Artist Shannon Rae Daniels is a Cantonese American visual artist and writer whose recent work has explored questions of impermanence, goodness, and beauty as they relate to the self and to communities at large — particularly American Chinatowns, which she is deeply invested in as someone with strong roots in New York City’s Chinatown. In 2023, she was selected for the Emerging Artists Program hosted by The Guild of Artists and Artisans in Ann Arbor, Michigan and then was chosen by a jury to show and sell her work at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair. She has taught arts and humanities classes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Arts Academy. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. About the Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry The Ann Arbor District Library, Fifth Avenue Studios, and 1473 are proud to present The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry. This series was created to celebrate and document the art of poetry in recorded form. Featuring poets from Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond, we hope that this series showcases and archives the incredible poetry scene here in Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond. The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry is named after and dedicated to two of my high school teachers, Judi Coolidge and Tom Wagner (RIP) of Bay High School (Ohio), who encouraged in me, as well as thousands of their other students, a lifelong appreciation and open-minded love of the arts. -Chien-An Yuan, 1473

Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe: Volume IV 1. Oranges 2. TETRA Ritual #24: This is Hungry Work 3. The Black Filipina Dictionary 4. Promised Land Artist's Statement Decolonizing is an incredibly intimate act. These poems move through self-definition and mirror work to find joy and liberation. About the Artist Named "Medicine Woman of Racial Healing" by the elders of her tradition, Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe has dedicated her life to using art and ancestral rituals to transform trauma into power. A ritualist, writer, alter, and performance artist, Sherina is a master healer initiated in Black and Filipina spiritual technologies and empowered by her elders to create new technologies when needed. She alchemizes art and ritual to guide freedom movements that dissolve oppression. By courageously facing down the past, she calls down outdated patterns, and opens a higher road of joy, mutual care, play, and deep community relationships. Sharpe is a two-time Kresge Fellow (2024 & 2014), Cave Canem Fellow, and VONA author. She directs The TETRA: Digital Underground Railroad, a secret liberation project with her partner, Chace Morris. Her healing methodologies are taught at Howard, Harvard, and Yale. When she’s not in ritual, Sherina can be found cuddling her four chihuahuas and basking in her own blend of joy and mischief.

1. Shadow Man 2. Reopen The Economy 3. Hex As A Language 4. Truth About Blackbirds Artist's Statement I believe in the magic and spellwork and offense of the poem. Like, going on the offensive. And I think these poems, delivered in this order, comprise a long-form spell. Poems are often positioned as defensive--healing and holding, a response to, an interpretation and reclaiming of. But I think writers like June Jordan, Sonia Sanchez, Amiri Baraka, and Saul Williams write like swinging on a face sometimes, making the system put its hands up for once. Observing, reporting, emotionally excavating injustice, yes, but also being able to go on the offensive, hexing what harms and blessing what builds. And in this time, after this last election, with much on the line, I’m trying to write good magic and step-the-hell-back for my kinfolk. Chace Morris Writer/Performer/Educator/Detroiter About the Poet Chace Morris is a poet, emcee, & Afrofuturist out of Detroit. His work is in constellation with that of June Jordan, Kendrick Lamar, Nina Simone, & Saul Williams, blending Afro-futurism, Black myth, and music as rebel magic. He is a two-time Kresge Arts Fellow (2024 Live Arts Fellow as The TETRA, 2013 Literary Fellow), a Radical Imagination Grant recipient, and recipient of an Alain Locke Award from the Detroit Institution of Arts. Chace is also the co-founder of The Digital Underground Railroad, an arts & ritual project, alongside his partner Sherina Rodriguez Sharpe. Together, they are known as The TETRA. When not writing, Chace is deep into movie-loving, laughing as a form of self-medication, and curating playlists that can save the day. About the Cover Artist Shannon Rae Daniels is a Cantonese American visual artist and writer whose recent work has explored questions of impermanence, goodness, and beauty as they relate to the self and to communities at large — particularly American Chinatowns, which she is deeply invested in as someone with strong roots in New York City’s Chinatown. In 2023, she was selected for the Emerging Artists Program hosted by The Guild of Artists and Artisans in Ann Arbor, Michigan and then was chosen by a jury to show and sell her work at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair. She has taught arts and humanities classes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Arts Academy. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. About the Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry The Ann Arbor District Library, Fifth Avenue Studios, and 1473 are proud to present The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry. This series was created to celebrate and document the art of poetry in recorded form. Featuring poets from Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond, we hope that this series showcases and archives the incredible poetry scene here in Ann Arbor, metro Detroit, and beyond. The Coolidge-Wagner Anthology of Recorded Poetry is named after and dedicated to two of my high school teachers, Judi Coolidge and Tom Wagner (RIP) of Bay High School (Ohio), who encouraged in me, as well as thousands of their other students, a lifelong appreciation and open-minded love of the arts. -Chien-An Yuan, 1473

Artist's Statement "I have lived many lives, I often say, and that is true of all my work. My books, my poems, my prose, express aspects of my background, geographies, histories, cultures, religions, mythologies, cuisines, and are journeys in time and space. Drawing deeply from my life in India, my Bene Israel (Indian Jewish) roots, my experiences in the US, immigration and displacement, racism and colonialism, death and loss, Nature, birds and animals, each book focuses on different, and yet related themes, weaving complex tapestries with imagery and fragmented as well as linear narratives. In this audio collection, I read poems from several books to create a medley and offer a wider perspective on my life’s work. " - Zilka Joseph About the Poet Zilka Joseph's work is influenced by Indian and Western cultures and by her Bene Israel roots. She was awarded a Zell Fellowship (MFA program) and the Elsie Choy Lee Scholarship (Centre for the Education of Women) from the University of Michigan. She has received many award nominations, honors, participated in literary festivals and readings, and has been featured on several radio programs and online interviews. Her work has appeared in POETRY, Poetry Daily, The Writers’ Chronicle, Frontier Poetry, Kenyon Review Online, Michigan Quarterly Review, Asia Literary Review, Cha, Poetry at Sangam, Pratik, The Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Review Americana, Gastronomica, and in anthologies such as Cheers To Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, Uncommon Core, RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music, Matwaala Anthology of Poets from South Asia (which she co-edited), 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium and The Kali Project. Her chapbooks, Lands I Live In and What Dread, were nominated for a PEN America Beyond Borders and a Pushcart award respectively. Sharp Blue Search of Flame, her book of poems published by Wayne State University Press was a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book Award. Her third chapbook Sparrows and Dust won a Best Indie Book Award and has been nominated for a Pushcart. In Our Beautiful Bones, her next book was a Foreword INDIES Book Award finalist, and nominated for a Pushcart, A PEN, Griffin, and the National Book Award. Her new book, Sweet Malida: Memories of a Bene Israel Woman, about the history and legends of the Bene Israel Jews of India, food, culture, and childhood memories, was published by Mayapple Press, in February, 2024. An international edition of the book will be published by Pippa Rann Books and Penguin Random House in late 2024. (See Books page for reviews, interviews etc.) She was born in Mumbai, lived in Kolkata, and now lives in Ann Arbor, USA. She teaches creative writing workshops, and is a freelance editor and manuscript advisor. She is dedicated to coaching, lifting up every writer she works with, and creating a unique community of writers/students wherever she lives and teaches. About the Cover Artist Shannon Rae Daniels is a Cantonese American visual artist and writer whose recent work has explored questions of impermanence, goodness, and beauty as they relate to the self and to communities at large — particularly American Chinatowns, which she is deeply invested in as someone with strong roots in New York City’s Chinatown. In 2023, she was selected for the Emerging Artists Program hosted by The Guild of Artists and Artisans in Ann Arbor, Michigan and then was chosen by a jury to show and sell her work at the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair. She has taught arts and humanities classes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Arts Academy. She was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Artist's Statement: Poetry is prayer and perhaps that is how I stumbled on the art of reading and writing them. These words I hope are meditations on what becomes of grief over time, space, and memory. It encourages us to seek where does love begin and grief end? This is a small collection that is part of a larger collection in the works. About the artist: Kyunghee Kim is a public school educator turned poet and artist. She is a proud Korean American immigrant, creative writing teacher, coach for multi-passionate writers, wellbeing expert, and a speaker whose work focuses on exploring themes of loving and living in the complexities of loss. Her essays have appeared in HuffPost, Shondaland, and others. Kyunghee has created and taught workshops at GrieveWell, a local nonprofit in Ann Arbor, and collaborated with artists on various poetry readings, concerts, and art exhibitions. She is a believer in building community through art. Her first book, See Us Bloom, is a children’s poetry book and is out now. When not writing, you can find Kyunghee on a hike somewhere, eating Korean food, watching K-Drama, or doing yoga (also a certified yogi). She was born in South Korea, raised in a small town of Utica, Michigan, now lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan with her husband and sweet pup Rosemary. Her favorite title is being an emo (aunt).