5 x 5 Reading + Open Mic
This reading took place on Tuesday, October 6th, at 7:00pm, at Moon Palace Books and featured Bridget Gordon, Marquise Bowie, KJ Kieras, and Najeeba Syeed. (Wordsworth Prescott Musinguzi was not able to attend.)
After the main reading, there was a short break followed by an open mic. This reading, and the open mic afterward, was hosted by Davi Gray and Cecily McMillan; both reading and open mic featured ASL interpretation.
Better Things is a series of events sponsored by ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books. ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them.
This activity was made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Bridget Gordon (she/her, fae/faer) is a queer trans woman and emerging poet living in Chicago. A former MFA student and sports journalist, her current work with poetry and short-form writing is enraptured with queer longing, identity, and liminality. She has past or forthcoming publications in Moist Poetry Journal, TRANS MAG, Pink Poetry Club, Coin-Operated Press, and Red Rock Review. Fae is the author of the self-published chapbook, the rest is up to you, love, released in Summer 2026. Her debut full-length poetry collection, if you know the color of their eyes it’s already too late, will be published by Raging Opossum Press in Fall 2026. Fae lives with her husband, metamour, cats, a blue electric guitar named Evie, and an ominously large TBR pile.
Marquise Bowie (he/him). Born and raised on the South Side of MPLS, MN. Son of the Most High. Father of two daughters Marquissa (26) Marquia (18). Grandfather of Makayla (2). Husband of Treva Bowie. Bonus kids Treionne, Isaiah, Mimi, Jeremiah, Xion and dog Angel. Deacon, Author, Ambassador, Mentor, Cofounder of the MN Agape movement. “Transforming street energy into community energy and putting the neighbor back into the hood”. South Side we outside!
KJ Kieras (they/them) is a writer and performer currently based in Minneapolis. They have performed slam poetry across the nation and are a three-time Midwest Poetry Mashup winner. Their work can be found in BeaverMag, Button Poetry, 45th Parallel, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal. They have been a Sundress Academy for the Arts resident and are a Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize Finalist. When not writing, they perform drag across the twin cities as the only lesbian in Minneapolis, Lucy Goosey. They proudly co-produce Minneapolis’ fiercest drag and poetry show, Debasement.
Najeeba Syeed (she/her) – Najeeba’s first book of poetry, Dreaming Lost Bodies Back, was released a few months ago. She writes about lineages of loss and resilience. She is a professor of religion here in Minneapolis.
Davi Gray (she/they) is a queer, trans, nonbinary poet, writer, performer, artist, producer, activist, and abolitionist. They live in Minneapolis (Bde Óta Othúŋwe), within Mni Sóta Makoce, on unceded Dakota lands. Her work has been published in Poetry, Water~Stone Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Rogue Agent, and elsewhere, and her first poetry collection, This Body, This Fruit, a finalist for the 2025 Louise Bogan Award, will be published in February 2027 by Trio House Press (available for pre-order). She is a recipient of 2025 and 2026 Arts Experiences grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and can often be found performing around the Twin Cities. You can learn more about her work, including upcoming events, at davigray.com.
Cecily McMillan (all pronouns) is a social justice organizer, political consultant, and published author. After enduring a Kafkaesque trial following her arrest at Occupy Wall Street in 2012, she served 58 days at Rikers Island. Since their release, McMillan has become an ardent prisoner rights advocate, highlighting the connections between poverty and incarceration. McMillan’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera America, and The Huffington Post. Their memoir The Emancipation of Cecily McMillan was published in 2016 by Nation Books.
For more than two decades, McMillan has been organizing actions and building organizations to promote racial and gender justice; to protect workers’, immigrants’, and students’ rights; and to fight for queer liberation and against nuclear proliferation. She has also worked in electoral politics in roles from canvasser to campaign director, most recently serving as Communications & Outreach Coordinator for Rep. Leigh Finke’s successful campaign to become the first openly trans person elected to the MN State Capitol.
Erin Sharkey (she/they) is a writer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and film producer based in Minneapolis. She is the editor of A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars (Milkweed Editions ’23). Erin is a founding co-op member of the Fields at Rootsprings, a retreat and respite space in central MN, and co-founder, with Junauda Petrus, of an experimental arts collective called Free Black Dirt. She is the producer of film projects, including Small Business Revolution, which explored challenges and opportunities for Black-owned businesses in the Twin Cities in the summer of 2021. Sharkey has received fellowships and residencies from the Loft Mentor Series, VONA/Voices, the Givens Foundation, Penumbra Theatre, Coffee House Press, the Bell Museum of Natural History, Black Visions, Headwaters Foundation, and the Jerome Foundation. She has an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and was a teacher for several years with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.
Louise Waakaa’igan (she/her) is an enrolled member at Odaawaa-Zaaga’iganiing in northern Wisconsin. Her first chapbook, This Is Where (Aquarius Press), was published in 2020. She is also the first-place winner of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop’s Broadside Competition (2016). Louise’s work has been previously published in PEN America, 21 Mythologies, The Moon Magazine, Night Colors, 27th Letter, Words in Gray Scale, and Doors Adjacent. She is ready to publish her second collection.
Better Things is a series of events sponsored by the ReEntry Lab, in partnership with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (MPWW) and Moon Palace Books.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
The ReEntry Lab is an organization working to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration to a community that’s ready to receive them. You can learn more about its mission, volunteer to help, and sign up for the newsletter at reentrylab.org.
* 5×5 format inspired by the 555 Reads series, developed by Elizabeth R. Tannen.