Jalen Eutsey: "Bubble Gum Stadium" & Dora Malech: "Flourish"

Join us for a reading and conversation with poets Jalen Eutsey and Dora Malech.

About Bubble Gum Stadium:

A home is made by the memories it holds, and in Bubble Gum Stadium, Jalen Eutsey makes us his house guests. Flush with the rich colors of South Florida, these poems immerse you in a history of a place and its people. Bubble Gum Stadium grips the reader with its immersive recollections and starkly beautiful language. We’re given a scrapbook of black community and coming-of age, so lovingly rendered in the backdrop of West Perrine. Memory offered as a gift, one Eutsey asks us to treasure; after all, what happens when it’s gone?

About Flourish:

In Flourish, multiple meanings catch light — as the leaves of growing things might, or the facets of cut gemstones, or a signal mirror flashing in distress. These poems explore themes of thriving, growth, innovation, and survival, while immersing the reader in the pleasures of language itself — the “flourish” of linguistic gesture, play, form, turn, and adornment.
Here, the lens zooms in and out to micro and macro levels, asking us to see the familiar with new eyes. The collection engages with the materials of the worlds we inhabit — natural worlds and those of our own making — and a full spectrum of poetry’s own materials, building worlds of words and illuminating the shadowed terrain of our interior landscapes as well.

About the Poets:

Jalen Eutsey is a writer from Miami, Florida. A recipient of the Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, his poems have appeared in Best New Poets, The Yale Review, Poetry Northwest, and The Hopkins Review. His chapbook Bubble Gum Stadium was published by Button Poetry. Photo of Jalen Eutsey credit Jemimah Wei.
Read "West Perrine Park (The Big Park)" by Jalen Eutsey.

Dora Malech’s fourth book of poetry, Flourish, was published in 2020, and her fifth book of poetry, Trying × Trying, is forthcoming in fall 2025. Her poems have appeared in publications that include The New Yorker and Best American Poetry. She is editor in chief of The Hopkins Review and a professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. Photo of Dora Malech credit Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University.
Read "Standards-Based Assessment" by Dora Malech.

About the Program:

• Doors will open to registered attendees at 2:00 pm.
• A local bookseller will be on-site and have books available for purchase.
• Free parking vouchers are available to program attendees who park at the Franklin Street Garage (15 W. Franklin Street). Ask Pratt event staff for your parking voucher prior to or after the program.
• There is no registration required for virtual attendance, simply visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.

Host or Publisher Enoch Pratt Free Library