Plum City Reading: Cherise Benton, Tara Pringle Jefferson, Mary Weems
Schedule
Wed, 21 Jan, 2026 at 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Loganberry Books | Cleveland Heights, OH
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Plum City Reading Series is Literary Cleveland's reading series bringing the country's most interesting and groundbreaking authors to Cleveland. Plum City aims to highlight the work of independent publishers while thoughtfully curating celebratory evenings of literature and community.Join us for our first reading of the year celebrating work by Cave Canem fellow Cherise Benton, Cleveland Arts Prize winning poet Mary Weems (Fall and Response), and local author Tara Pringle Jefferson (Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing).
This installment of the Plum City Reading Series will take place Wednesday, January 21 at Loganberry Books (13015 Larchmere in Cleveland. Doors open at 6:30 and reading begins at 7pm to be immediately followed by an afterparty at the Literary Cleveland Offices (13002 Larchmere).
NOTE: In keeping with our mission, to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, the registration fee for this event is "Pay What You Can." We believe every writer, reader, storyteller, and literary enthusiast who wants to attend a Literary Cleveland event should be able to have that experience. "Pay What You Can" registration allows comfortable, affordable participation for everyone. We have suggested fees—you can pay one of them, or pay what you can. Your participation is the priority for us.
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Readers
Cherise Benton is yet another poet cliché immodest in her preoccupation with moons and flowers. Her work is inspired by her greed for knowledge and features the stuff she likes—frolicking, Lake Erie, Homeric epithets, and folktale arcana. Cherise is from Northeast Ohio and spends most of her time washing dishes, going to planetarium shows, and conducting elaborate research and art projects no one asked for. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Wilkes University and is a Cave Canem fellow. Her poetry has been published by Great Lakes Review, Olney Magazine, and Pank, and her prose is included in Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: a Youngstown Anthology and Flash Nonfiction Food: 91 Very Delicious, Very True, Very Short Stories.
Tara Pringle Jefferson is founder of The Self Care Suite, a digital wellness community for Black women. Over the last decade, Jefferson has brought her wellness expertise to corporate audiences including WW, SiriusXM, Wayfair, and Priceline. Her voice has been featured on New York magazine’s The Cut, Black Enterprise, and Essence. When she’s not writing, she finds peace among her houseplants and flowers. A Cleveland native, she lives in northeast Ohio with her husband and two children. Her new book is Bloom How You Must: A Black Woman’s Guide to Self-Care and Generational Healing (2025 Amistad).
Mary E. Weems, M.A., Ph.D., is a poet, playwright, author, performer, imagination-intellect theorist, and social/cultural foundations scholar. Recent books include Black Poetic Inquiry: A Daily Writing Project on Race, Culture, and Life (2025), Performative Intergenerational Dialogues of a Black Quartet (2023) with Co-Author Bryant Keith Alexander and the third as 2nd Author with D.C. Hill and D. Callier, Collaborative Spirit-Writing in Everyday Black Lives (2022), Still Hanging: Using Performance Texts to Deconstruct Racism (2021), and; five chapbooks, most notably white (Wick Chapbook), and numerous poems, articles and book chapters. In 2023, Mary Weems produced her first short film “Socks,” based on her play. To date, “Socks” has won numerous Independent Film Awards including six (6) for “Best Short Film.” Weems’ plays and/or excerpts have been published or produced since 1997. Highlights include: Hey Siri, Borderlight Fringe Festival, July 21-23, 2022, “Slapped” which won the “Best Short” award at the 2021 Downtown Urban Arts Festival in New York, “Crack the Door for Some Air,” live Streamed Staged Reading, Dobama Theater, February 11, 2021, “Let the People See what they did to my Son,” part of Freedom Juneteenth, Karamu House, 2020, “Loss and Found” one-woman show, Kent State University, April 10-11, 2019, and “At Last: Celebrating the lives of Black Women,” produced by Bringing Words to Life at the Ensemble Theater, February 22-March 3rd, 2018. “Fall and Response” (2024) her third collection of poems was just released by Africa World Press. Mary Weems may be reached on her website at www.maryeweems.org
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Where is it happening?
Loganberry Books, 13017 Larchmere Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44120-1147, United States, Cleveland HeightsEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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