Yard Show: Poetry of Belonging, Nature, and Black Creative Placemaking

General admission registration opens Sept. 2.

Join us at Ohio City Farm for a poetry reading and cultural gathering with acclaimed writer Janice N. Harrington, celebrating her Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winning collection, Yard Show. Set amidst one of the nation’s largest urban farms, this event honors the Black midwestern tradition of the yard show—where everyday materials and personal memory transform outdoor spaces into vibrant, living art.

In Yard Show, Harrington reclaims the overlooked and the ordinary, illuminating how Black communities have long used their yards as sites of beauty, resistance, and storytelling. Her poems echo with the textures of reclaimed land, the rhythms of nature, and the deep-rooted creativity that flourishes in the margins.

Ohio City Farm, a reclaimed urban space dedicated to sustainable agriculture and community nourishment, offers a fitting landscape for this celebration of land, memory, and imagination.

The event will include:

• A reading and conversation with Janice N. Harrington

• Reflections on the cultural and ecological significance of front yard shows

• A guided walk through the farm’s cultivated grounds

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Registration is free but required. There will be a standby line at the venue; if there is available space, people will be seated on a first come, first served basis.

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Host or Publisher Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards