Molly Pershin Raynor

I am kvelling and plotzing and so excited to share that ONE month from today (7-9pm on 5/22) Ann Arbor will be blessed with an epic show “Poems for the People!” featuring all-star, award winning authors Patricia Smith, Sarah Kay, Ross Gay, Shira Erlichman & Hanif Abdurraqib + an incredible crew of Volume alumni and current youth poets! I am so honored to co-host this event with Jeff and Angel Nafis.

This show is in celebration of Jeff Kass’ last year as a public school teacher after 32 years. If you know me, then I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about Jeff and how he changed the trajectory of my life when I met him at 14 years old. I was a shy, insecure sophomore trying to blend into the background at our massive public school when I took his creative writing class and started going to his poetry workshops at the old Neutral Zone.

Through his mentorship and deep belief in me, I found my voice, I found myself- I became confident in my identity, my beliefs and my purpose. Jeff took other youth poets and I across the country to festivals and slams where we got to connect with poets from all over the world and sit at the feet of our poetry elders like Gwendolyn Brooks, Sekou Sundiata, Saul Williams, Sharon Olds and Rita Dove. He packed huge theaters and brought poets like Patricia Smith, Ross Gay, Patrick Rosal and Reggie Gibson to grace Ann Arbor’s stages. He built a program inspired by the wisdom of leaders like June Jordan (whose Poetry for the People program inspired the name of our show).

I came home from my first BNV in the Bay Area at age 16 and told my parents that when I grew up I wanted to move to the Bay and be a poetry teacher like Jeff. He didn’t just teach me how to write, he taught me how to teach- how to hold brave space. Witnessing him and other teaching artists build a national youth spoken word movement gave me the blueprint to do just that- after college I moved to the Bay and co-founded RAW Talent, then returned home 10 years later to take over the NZ Literary Arts program from him and co-founded Staying Power. Through these 3 decades of poetry life I have experienced such deep healing, inspiration and community. Continued in comments below💜