Givens Foundation | Black Market Reads

If you’re nasty: A Janet Jackson inspired literary salon. With guests Danez Smith, Kamia Watson, Khary Jackson, Sha Cage and Tish Jones. Recorded in a live performance environment. Producer: Givens Foundation for African American Literature, Production services: iDream.tv BMR Hosts: Junauda Petrus and Erin Sharkey Special thanks to Seven Steakhouse & Sushi in Minneapolis for hosting the inaugural salon.   Danez Smith – a Saint Paul native, Danez is a current mentor in the Givens Emerging Writers Program, a winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, a 2014 Ruth Lilly - Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. 

 Sha Cage – Writer/Performer, Givens Writing Fellow, and IVEY AWARD winner for her tour de force performance in grounded last year and her solo work U/G/L/Y.

 Khary Jackson – Poet, playwright, dancer, musician, and Cave Canem Fellow.

 Kamia Watson – A native of Minneapolis, she writes under the name KamRynnKay

 Tish