{"id":24940,"date":"2026-02-23T08:51:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T13:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/?p=24940"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T17:32:18","slug":"udm-features-detroit-poets-brittany-rogers-and-tommye-blount-for-reading-and-conversation-feb-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/2026\/02\/23\/udm-features-detroit-poets-brittany-rogers-and-tommye-blount-for-reading-and-conversation-feb-24\/","title":{"rendered":"UDM features Detroit poets Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount for reading and conversation, Feb. 24"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Detroit Mercy\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/chass.udmercy.edu\/academics\/eng\/\">Department of English<\/a> will host a special night of poetry and conversation with poets Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount on <strong>Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m.<\/strong>, in Room 114 of the Chemistry Building.<\/p>\n<p>A reception and book signing will precede the event at <strong>5:30 p.m.,<\/strong> where copies of Rogers&#8217; <em>Good Dress<\/em> and Blount&#8217;s <em>Fantasia for the Man in Blue<\/em> will be available for sale. All are invited to attend this free event.<\/p>\n<p>Blount, a native of Detroit, is the author of the chapbook <em>What Are We Not For<\/em> and the full-length collection of poetry <em>Fantasia for the Man in Blue<\/em>, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry. A graduate from Warren Wilson College\u2019s MFA Program for Writers, Blount is the recipient of many commendations, fellowships and grants including from the Desert Rat Residency, Cave Canem and Kresge Arts.<\/p>\n<p>Rogers is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and lifelong Detroiter. Her work has been published widely, including the Academy of American Poets, Lit Hub and Oprah Daily. Her poetry collection <em>Good Dress<\/em> was a Michigan Notable Book for 2025 and finalist for both the NAACP Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry. Rogers was awarded the Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and a Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship.<\/p>\n<p>This event is co-sponsored by the African American Studies Program and Student Life.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/poetry-reading-with-brittany-rogers-and-tommye-blount-tickets-1982884104735?aff=oddtdtcreator\">Reserve tickets here.<\/a><\/h4>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-24943 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/02\/poetry-reading.jpg?resize=993%2C560&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A flyer for a poetry reading and conversation with poets Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount with image of Rogers on the left side and Blount on the right side. Their names appear at the top in pink boxes against a background of newspaper pages. A pink box in the center reads \u201cReading &amp; Conversation.\u201d The event details at the bottom state: \u201cTuesday, Feb. 24, 6 p.m., Chemistry 114.\u201d At the bottom right corner is text noting the event is co-sponsored by Student Life, African American Studies and Detroit Mercy English, with logo.\" width=\"993\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/02\/poetry-reading.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/02\/poetry-reading.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/02\/poetry-reading.jpg?w=825&amp;ssl=1 825w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 993px) 100vw, 993px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UDM will host an evening of poetry and conversation with Detroit poets, Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. Come early for a reception and book signing at 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":24943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6,6438,4404],"tags":[3824,2009,7324,6164,6165,6523,3684,3705,2183,13,7325],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2026\/02\/poetry-reading.jpg?fit=825%2C464&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbwnTV-6ug","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24940"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25002,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24940\/revisions\/25002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/campusconnection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}