Doors open at Cerimon House at 6:30, arrive by 6:45 to settle in with a drink and a snack. Show starts at 7:00. No tickets are necessary.

This Black History Month event is intended to honor and uplift the generations of black women who bathed us and raised us, combed and plaited our hair and who weren’t afraid to put us in our place when we needed it. We want to pay tribute to the black women who ordered us to be in the house before the street lights came on and who blessed us with momma’s love, auntie’s strength and our grandmother’s spirit.

This event is to acknowledge the phenomenalness, the beauty, the brilliance, the passion, the presence and the mystery of black women of all ages, shapes, shades and situations. On this night, black women will not be invisible in Portland. We will be seen and we will be heard – with no apology and in safe space.

For black women, nights like this are “a vital necessity of our existence,” as poet Audre Lorde noted. “Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”

Can I get an AMEN, somebody? Join us for this unique reading at Cerimon House – because our words definitely matter, too! And thank you to my co-curator Jenny Forrester for creating safe space for all women to speak their truth!

Unchaste features poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Every reader is invited to “Read Her Mind” for seven minutes.

See the website for more information about the Unchaste Readers Series:http://unchastereaders.com/wp/