During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted to an online format for our monthly Poetry Coffeehouse. In place of our open mic, we are inviting an established or emerging guest poet each month to share their poetry with us via Zoom, and then inviting participants to write in response to what moved them in the featured artist’s themes or words. There will then be time for sharing with other participants. This one-hour poetry experience extends our community to a wider world and offers all writers a safe net for linguistic exploration and spiritual discovery.

Leader(s)

Enoch the Poet was born and raised on the north side of Wilmington, DE. His poetry examines ways trauma and mental health move through a family hereditarily, as well as the outside forces that affect or have affected these developments. His goal is to create work for the younger him, work that deepens our emotional understanding and its cyclical relation to the conditions acting on the Black mind, body, and spirit. In 2017, he won the title of 2017 Philadelphia Fuze Grand Slam Champion and placed 28th out of 95 in the Individual World Poetry Slam in Spokane, Washington.

Enoch’s work has been published in such literary magazines as Wusgood and Open Mind Quarterly, and he has published his first full-length book of poetry, The Guide to Drowning. Enoch is also a teaching artist creating curriculum using poetry as a medium for processing hereditary trauma. When not performing or teaching, Enoch can be found reading manga, watching anime, or working to move communities of color forward through resource distribution, education programming, and social wellness events as treasurer and creative director of Urgent 365, Inc. Learn more at https://www.enochthepoet.com.

Jesse White is the Arts and Spirituality Coordinator at Pendle Hill. She holds a B.A. in Integrative Studies: Creative and Spiritual Process joined with a B.A. in Psychology from Guilford College. Jesse works as an arts educator and art therapist and directs Pigeon Arts, a cathartic art-making organization in Philadelphia. She is a member of Frankford Friends Meeting (PA).

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