Jose Olivarez
photo by Marcos Vasquez
The Plug Poetry Project returns to the fifth floor of The Edney Innovation Center on Feb. 22 to feature award-winning poet Jose Olivarez. The Plug is an arts initiative started by Christian J. Collier in 2019 that strives to honor and grow Chattanooga's poetry community by providing resources, classes, and events.
Jose Olivarz is the son of Mexican immigrants and the author of the book of poems, Citizen Illegal, a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Jean Stein Book Award. In 2018, he was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association. Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he is co-editing the forthcoming anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT.
He is the co-host of the poetry podcast, The Poetry Gods and a recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, Poets House, the Bronx Council on the Arts, & the Conversation Literary Festival. A recipient of the 2019 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Chicago Magazine and elsewhere.
On the afternoon of Feb. 22, a poetry workshop will take place from 12-2 p.m. Interested writers should email Mr. Collier at thespeakeasypoetry@gmail.com to secure a spot as soon as possible due to limited space. The evening reading will take place from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Local poets Moll King and Tiffany Herron will open the night with sets of original material.
Tickets are available here.