Petworth resident Kim Roberts has put together a great website called Pride Poems showcasing 30 short videos featuring poems from different poets around the DMV, including Malik Thompson, who works at Loyalty Books on Upshur Street.

Pride Poems offers a video a day for 30 days, with a different poet each day reading an original love poem.

Featured poets include local favorites Regie Cabico, Dan Vera, and Michelle Parkerson, and talented younger writers, many of whom will be new discoveries for listeners, including Malik Thompson, Brandon Blue and Michelle Ott. All read charming, often poignant love poems, in videos that range in length from six minutes to half a minute.

The project is co-curated by two close friends: poet and DC literary historian Kim Roberts, and filmmaker and cultural impresario Jon Gann. Each poet’s video is accompanied by a text of the poem, so viewers with hearing impairments can enjoy them, and all will be archived for continued viewing beyond the end of National Gay Pride Month. The project was produced through a generous grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Poets include university professors, National Slam champions, the co-chairs of DC OutWrite Festival, editors of literary journals and notable anthologies, and winners of national literary awards. They range in age from their twenties through their seventies, and featured some of the most exciting queer poets active in Washington, DC’s literary community right now.

Poets featured in DC Pride Poem-a-Day:

Saida Agostini * Francisco Aragon * Danielle Badra * Holly Mason Badra * Brandon Blue * Regie Cabico * Sunu P. Chandy * Marlena Chertock * Jona Colson * Tafisha Edwards * Keondra Bills Freemyn * Robert L. Giron * Emily Holland * Natalie E. Illum * Anthony R. Keith, Jr. * Kristen Zory King * Hiram Larew * Dwayne Lawson-Brown * Tanya Olson * Michelle Ott * Tanya Paperny * Michelle Parkerson * Kim Roberts * Joseph Ross * Natasha Sajé * Yermiyahu Ahron Taub * C. Thomas * Malik Thompson * Dan Vera * Kathi Wolfe

Enjoy the love! Check out Pride Poems…