The Boxyard Poets Lighting Project is a poetry lantern-making experience that will brighten your spirit. Poets celebrate the brightest day of the year by leaving illuminating words on paper lanterns and lighting them together.
Join us on Saturday, June 21 at Boxyard RTP for a night of:
📖 Poetry readings
🎙️ Spoken word artistry
🎶Live music by Argiope
🏮Lantern-making by Rebelized Vintage (limited seats available)
Featuring words from Humble Rodent, Lauren Bullock, and Parlay Vitalis, along with a special music performance by indie singer-songwriter Argiope.
Plus, a pre-show writing workshop by Angelica Whitehorne x Durham Prison Letters that will bring light to incarcerated spaces.
Hosted by Tongue & Groove’s Anna Weaver.
Lantern-making at 6PM. Show at 7PM.
Ages 16+. All proceeds support the program artists and changemakers.
Performance Lineup
Lauren Bullock is a queer, genderfluid Black and Vietnamese cultural organizer, writer, speaker, and educator. Lauren’s work has been featured by AFROPUNK.com, Button Poetry, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, The Human Rights Campaign, and more. Lauren is a Kundiman, Watering Hole, Pink Door, and Obsidian Foundation fellow as well as a Susan Laughter Meyers and Furious Flower Poetry Prize finalist. When not creating Lauren enjoys fighting crime as a costumed vigilante of many aliases.
Humble Rodent is a local poet and community organizer that has been performing in the Raleigh area for oh god oh god time is never going to stop passing is it years. His heartfelt and rhythmic style has been deeply shaped by Raleigh’s spoken word tradition and he would like to remind you that art is for everyone and everyone should take the time to find joy in creation and self exploration, it’s not supposed to be good you’re not supposed to be good. Keep up with his work via Instagram @humblerodentlit
Argiope is a singer/songwriter in the Raleigh Triangle area who blends her love of ancient languages and mythology with her love of lyric and music composition. Her songs meticulously weave together narratives from the ancient world with modern lyrics, sounds, and sensibilities, resulting in deliciously anachronistic takes on your favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) myths.
Parlay is a freestyle poet, cultural strategist, and movement-maker whose work lives at the intersection of art, liberation, and spontaneity. Rooted in Brooklyn with deep Caribbean lineage, their poetry blends improvisation with intention; each verse a ritual, each performance a pulse. Parlay has performed across the United States and internationally, bringing raw, resonant spoken word to stages, community spaces, and cultural gatherings around the globe. Whether igniting crowds or curating creative spaces for dialogue and expression, they turn words into windows; revealing what’s personal, political, and powerfully possible. A leader in motion, a traveler by design, and a believer in the soft revolution; Parlay speaks from the soul and creates from the edges.
Anna Weaver is the founder and host of Tongue & Groove, a vibrant open mic in downtown Raleigh. Her poems have appeared in Connotation Press, O-Dark-Thirty, One, and elsewhere, and she’s performed in 39 states (and counting). Find her at annaweaver.net
Presented by Poets’ Playground.
Poets’ Playground is a community arts program powered by Boxyard RTP. Our mission is to create space for poets and changemakers to freely share their voice, hone their craft, and collaborate on community-building initiatives. Hosting at least four events each year, we bring in local organizations and independent poets to deliver workshops, readers panels, poetry book fairs, open mics and more — all in a single day.
Location
Suite #200, 900 Park Offices Drive, RTP, NC 27709
Suite #200, 900 Park Offices Drive, RTP, NC 27709