Voices Restored: A Spoken-Word Celebration of Poetry by Harlem Renaissance Women

This dynamic performance pairs Harlem Renaissance poetry by Black women with the voices of today’s Black women poets, alive, embodied, and present. First published a century ago and underrepresented since then, these works are newly brought together as a staged production, voiced, embodied, and interpreted for a contemporary audience.

Long Island poets and performers Emma Desulme and Diamond Scruggs selected the poems they wished to perform from a curated collection and arranged them in a meaningful sequence for the stage.

The performance (2:00–3:00 pm) is followed by a panel discussion (3:00–3:30 pm) moderated by Nassau County Poet Laureate Emerita Paula Curci, featuring Emma Desulme, Diamond Scruggs, and producer Karen Rae Levine. The discussion invites audience participation and explores how these works resonate today while placing the poets within their historical context.

The performance is an extension of a larger effort to introduce the short works of Harlem Renaissance women, recognized in their time but forgotten in ours, to a contemporary audience.

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Host or Publisher Karen Rae Levine