A poetry reading in conversation with "Captured," an exhibition by Amber Sowards of photographs taken of youth inside the Dane County Juvenile Detention Center in downtown Madison. Featured readers: Dana Maya, T. Banks, Carlos Eduardo Gacharná, and Rockameem Bell.
T Banks is a community organizer, a mental wellness advocate, poet and playwright. After graduating with a degree in English Creative writing, Banks has successfully used his art through plays and poetry to address Racism, Transphobia, and Abelism. As a Black Trans, Queer person with a disability, T believes the movement for Black Lives must be intersectional and deeply connected to the struggle to end Patriarchy, specifically as it manifests as violence against Black Trans folks. His work addresses the need for the Black liberation movement to be accessible to those with mental wellness challenges and / or physical disabilities as well fights for the ability of these populations to regain their autonomy in a capitalistic society.
Carlos Eduardo Gacharná is a Colombian artist and activist based in Madison, Wisconsin. He considers himself a lucky survivor of Madison's massive racial disparity and dedicates his professional life to utilizing this privilege to open doors for those who have yet to find a way forward. Carlos is a PEOPLE Program Scholar and undergraduate student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Art Department, as well as the current head of 100arts.
Dana Maya is a writer and educator from what Américo Paredes called “Greater Mexico”—a space transcending geopolitical, cultural, linguistic, and creative borders. Her poetry, essays, and multimedia work appear in Feminist Formations, the Volta, So to Speak Journal, Basta: 100+Latinas Against Gender Violence, Listen to Your Mother, Migrations and Home: Elements of Place, the A Line Meant Anthology, museums, memorials, and other public sites. Her research background is in Mexican-American/Chicanx Literature and culture, US immigrant literatures, and queer studies. A collaborator with community organizations and visual artists on projects for social change, she coordinates POEMA [] PINTURA, has been a Writing the Land poet since 2023, and was Artist in Residence for Dane County Arts in 2025.
Dana has collaborated with video artist Aaron Granat on two live video events for the Midwest Video Poetry Fest in 2022 and... Read More
Arts + Literature Laboratory is located at 111 S. Livingston Street #100, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703.
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