The LAVA Center hosts a monthly series, Writers Read, on the second Wednesday every month. Coordinated by Lindy Whiton, the series brings in local writers and a couple of outside surprises. $5 suggested donation.
Kaia Jackson
Kaia (they/them) is a healing-centered creator, space holder and story weaver. They have also served as a movement chaplain, offering emotional and spiritual support, and uplifting practices of embodiment and community care, with activists. They are grateful for every opportunity to write poetry, share stories and tell bad jokes in creative eco-systems that support risk-taking and praise weirdness.
Mishie Serrano
At only 23, Mishie Serrano is an acclaimed Puerto Rican poet, activist and community organizer. Determined to transform controversy into transformative healing, Mishie’s work as an artivist has led innovative conversations around her school (Holyoke Community College) to prison pipeline, language barriers, immigration, freedom for Puerto Rico, and intersectional feminism. She was recently awarded the HCC LatinX Studies Award in May 2023.
Moonlight Davis
I am a 76 year-old African-American man, born and raised in a Philadelphia ghetto. I survived segregation, racism, lack of education and personal trauma. I am living proof of what was then, what is here now and what is to come. I am a photographer, a musician and performer, a husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather and sometimes a writer. As you would imagine, I have many stories I can tell – many stories I can write, but it feels like one continuous story of my life experience.
