Sail Through This To That - Poetry Sail

Join us aboard the North Wind schooner for an intimate evening of poetry during the golden hour on the Delaware River as we sail through this time of uncertainty to a place of greater connection between human beings and the natural world that holds us. The words of poets Evangeline Getty Brooks, Michael J. Ivory, Jr. and Raina J. León will take us downriver with the North Wind schooner.  Participants will board and exit the boat at Spruce Street Harbor Park’s pier. This program is the second of a triptych of public programs to be offered in the month of June as part of Sail Through This to That.

Accessibility Info: ASL services will be provided. All passengers will be provided with a life vest that must be worn at all times. To board the boat, passengers will have to walk up a fairly steep and narrow ramp/gangway. There is one restroom located on the boat and it is at the bottom of a small flight of stairs. Participants should wear rubber-soled shoes to prevent slipping on the boat’s deck. Seating on the boat is chair-height, bench-style seating without arms, floor cushions will also be available for use on the boat deck.

Evangeline Getty Brooks is a native Pennsylvanian and interdisciplinary artist based in Philly. Her work revolves around Black Trans divinity, feminine Poz divinity, & the richness, weight, & cost of living in a body that is both desired & discounted.

Michael J. Ivory, Jr. is a Worker of the Word -- in other words, a writer. A Miami, FL-native, he currently lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the queer son of Pentecostal preachers, Michael lives out his sacred mission to affirm the inherent divinity of all people, but most especially Black queer "outcasts" like himself. He does this through his writing, which can be found on his Substack, as well as in his work with O, Miami Press, Iansá Mag, Duke Magazine, and Oxford American. He is currently working on his debut novel, but when he isn't doing that is probably joking with friends or avoiding his Japanese textbooks. 

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is the 2026-2027 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.  She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education. She seeks out communities of care and craft and is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo. She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and the chapbooks,profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. She publishes across forms in visual art, poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly work.