As part of Big Blue Marble's One Book, One Philadelphia Celebration, our book club will be exploring contemporary African American poetry about The Great Migration, including work by: Terrance Hayes, Tyehimba Jess, Crystal Williams, Elizabeth Alexander, and Lyra Van Clief-Stefanon. All of these poets were writing in response to The Migration Series by artist Jacob Lawrence. We'll be projecting his work as we read.

In Poetry Is Not a Luxury we use the best contemporary poets to explore the most urgent social issues. Each month we focus on a different book and discuss poetry as poets do. We read our favorite poems out loud, listen for sound and rhythm, consider how the poet plays with language, and consider the joys and sorrows in the poems.