Ross Gay & Angel Bat Dawid on Poetry

Poet Ross Gay and composer and multi-instrumentalist Angel Bat Dawid host an evening of creative exchange inspired by the vibrant abstractions of Alma Thomas. Opening with a call-and-response, Gay will read a poem inspired by Thomas’s work, followed by Bat Dawid’s improvisational musical reply—an unfolding dialogue that moves between language, sound, and sensation. From this shared beginning, the artists will expand into conversation, reflecting on how Thomas’s use of color, pattern, and movement resonates across poetry and music, and how her work continues to shape contemporary practices rooted in joy, improvisation, and the natural world.

Free; RSVP encouraged.

Ross Gay is a poet whose writing considers everyday life, relationships, and the natural world, within the rich spectrum of emotional experience.

Angel Bat Dawid is a composer, clarinetist, and vocalist. Her improvisational practice blends jazz, spiritual traditions, and experimental sound.

Alma Thomas, Untitled (Music Series), 1978, acrylic on canvas, 71 5⁄8 x 52 in. (182.0 x 132.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1978.40.5

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Smart Museum of Art