Join poet Maya Williams for an exploration of poetry, intergenerational patterns of dating and intimate partner violence, suicidality, and religion.

JUDAS & SUICIDE is a poetry collection navigating religion and suicidality. It approaches these topics through the lens of Black family and community, sadness, medication, sexual violence, the prison industrial complex, media, and Bible verses. JUDAS & SUICIDE explores how to be convinced to stay alive without feeling obligated to.

REFUSED A SECOND DATE is a collection about first dates, dates that prevent any chance of a second date. The poems center on first date impressions, intergenerational patterns of dating and intimate partner violence, racism in dating, mental health, religion as it relates to sex, and queerness. REFUSED A SECOND DATE is a love letter to the romantic, platonic, and familial relationships that shape us. Most importantly, it is a love letter to the author's mother who shaped how they navigate relationships.

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently the poet laureate of Portland, Maine. Eir debut collection JUDAS & SUICIDE was released in May 2023 by Game Over Books and was selected as a finalist for the New England Book Award. Eir second collection REFUSED A SECOND DATE will be released in October 2023 by Harbor Editions. Maya was one of three artists of color selected to represent Maine in The Kennedy Center's Arts Across America series in 2020. Maya was also selected as one of The Advocate's Champions of Pride in 2022. You can follow more of their work at mayawilliamspoet.com

The Rev. Carla S. Christopher (she/her/hers), poetically known as The Priestess, is a poet-activist, cultural competency trainer, and ordained redevelopment/congregational vitality pastor co-rostered in the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). One of the first out LGBTQIA+ Black women ordained in the Lutheran denomination, Carla was the 4th Poet Laureate of York, PA and specializes in areas of creative storytelling, community-based activism, trauma-informed care and mindfulness, and LGBTQIA+/cultural/ability/economic equity.Carla currently serves as pastor of Heidelberg United Church of Christ in York, PA. She also serves as Assistant to the Bishop in Charge of Justice Ministries, Lower Susquehanna Synod, ELCA (south central PA region).When not preaching and teaching, Carla supports survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, writes for multiple faith-based blogs and magazines, moonlights with the poetry-funk fusion band, Groove Ink, and shamelessly spoils her adored Great Pyranees, Bishop Winnie Mandela Love Christopher.