First Friday Reading Series: April

Join us every

First Friday Art Walk in Highlandtown

for live author readings by local writers and poets. Each month will feature a different genre, including Local Flavor, Science Fiction, Memoir, and more. Light beverages and snacks will be provided. Come out and explore the literature growing in your own back yard, and support your local authors, writers, and publishers.

When: Every first Friday, starting April 6, 5 - 9PMWhere: Dennis Moore's Pottery Studio, corner of S. Conkling and Bank, 21224. Across from Rooftop Hot.In April we are keeping it local and hosting the following writers of books, essays and poetry about Baltimore.6:00pmJudy Colbert is an award-winning author and photographer who specializes in travel. Her most recent book is "100 Things to Do in Baltimore Before You Die." She’s also authored or co-authored "Peaceful Places Washington, DC", "Chesapeake Bay Crabs" cookbook, "It Happened in Maryland," "It Happened in Delaware," "Maryland and Delaware Off the Beaten Path", "Super Bowl Trivia," and "Virginia Off the Beaten Path". Her current interest is restaurants on the Chesapeake Bay where people can dock their boats.6:30pmAshley Elizabeth is a 20-something year old black poet from Baltimore who draws inspiration from her city, her people, her space, and her body. As a Hollins graduate, she hopes to inspire future generations of writers and literature lovers, but teaching is only one of her passions. She has been featured in online journals such as Rose Water, Passages North, Rat's Ass Review, and For the Sonorous among others. Ashley is also Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications. She habitually posts on Twitter and Instagram @ae_thepoet7:00pmHarford Hopson is a writer from Baltimore, Maryland. In his formative years, he was uprooted and displaced to Pennsylvania, where he was force-fed hog maw by Quakers and made to watch Steeler football. He is the author of the crime drama novel, Amusement Only and his poetry has been featured in End of 83. He describes his work, among many interpretations, as the pulpy romance between unlikely classes in the American race.7:30pmKristina Gaddy is a Baltimore-based writer who focuses on history, culture, and health. The piece "Labors" was a finalist for Proximity Magazine's 2017 Narrative Journalism Prize. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, Ozy, Goucher Quarterly, and UMBC Magazine among others. Her nonfiction book about teenagers who fought the Nazis during the Third Reich will be published by Dutton in 2019.8:00pmEvan L. Balkan is the author of six books of nonfiction, including The Wrath of God: Lope de Aguirre; Revolutionary of the Americas (Univ. of New Mexico Press) as well as many essays and short stories in an array of publications. His novel Spitfire is forthcoming from Amphorae Publishing. His screenplay Spitfire, adapted from his novel of the same name, won both the 2016 Baltimore Screenwriters Competition and a Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Fellowship; his screenplay Children of Disobedience won the 2017 Baltimore Screenwriting Competition. He is a co-writer for the television series, Wayward Girls. He coordinates the English Department at the Community College of Baltimore County, where he runs the creative writing program, and is an adjunct faculty member in the Johns Hopkins University's graduate Teaching Writing program. He holds degrees in the humanities from Towson, George Mason, and Johns Hopkins universities. The latter degree is in creative writing with a fiction concentration and his thesis project, the novel Root That Mountain Down, won an Individual Artist Award for Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council and was subsequently excerpted in the Baltimore Review. He has served as a guest lecturer at Yale, Johns Hopkins, Bryn Mawr and many other institutions.8:30pmKaren Hattrup grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her parents and brother, devouring books from an early age. At Loyola University Maryland, she studied journalism and spent a semester abroad in Thailand. She went on to become a newspaper reporter, first in Maryland and then in Indiana, writing features and serving as an award-winning arts critic. Karen later studied nonfiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore City with her husband, daughter, and son.Why:We love supporting local authors and writers. The idea for this series was born out of wanting to add a literary arts component to the art walk. And here we are!How:This series is powered by Yellow Arrow Publishing and Ariele Sieling, residents of Highlandtown.