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.

Our 2017-2018 season focuses on Voices of the Silenced/Voices of the Resistance.

The May selection for Poetry Is Not a Luxury is Iraqi author Amal al-Jubouri's "Hagar Before the Occupation, Hagar After the Occupation," translated by Rebecca Howell. Al-Jubouri contextualizes America's occupation of Iraq through the Qur'an's story of Hagar. The poems mirrors Hagar's desperate running between Safa and Marwah, as we pace frantically between pre- and post-occupation Iraq.


June 27 - Ocean Vuong, "Night Sky with Exit Wounds"
July 25 - Janine Joseph, "Driving Without a License"