This event will feature readings by

Warren Longmire
Toni Love
Elijah Pringle

Hosted by Brooke Palma. An open mic will follow.

Barnaby’s West Chester
15 S. High St.
West Chester PA 19382

Warren C. Longmire is an queer negro writer, technologist, and educator from the bad part of North Philadelphia. He is the former contributing editor for Apiary Magazine, the host of House Poet: Spoken Word Dance Party and the founder of _mixlit. He is a board member for Blue Stoop. You can find Warren’s work in journals including American Poetry Review, Cartridge Lit, and Prolit Magazine as well as the Best American Poetry 2021 Anthology. His second full length project, Bird/Diz: An Erased History of Bebop (Bunnie Press), was released in November of 2023.

Tonita Austin also known as “Toni Love” is a gifted poet, singer, activist, and writer born in West Philadelphia. While attending Columbia University, Tonita was a student of Amiri Baraka and performed in Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls” as the Lady in Orange. Her writing is influenced by both experiences. She is a contributor to the anthology The Black Body and featured poet in the 2018 and 2020 Winter/Fall edition of the Philadelphia Arts and Urban Literary magazine. The Restoration EP is her first published recording; Toni’s Room is her first published book. Toni currently resides in Media, PA. For more info, visit www.tonitalove.com and https://tonilove.hearnow.com/.

Elijah B. Pringle, III is an internationally published American poet from Philadelphia, PA. His works appears in several international anthology: Compagnia de' Colombari’s Whitman on Walls, 99 Poets for the 99 Percent, Selfhood (India), Moonstone Poetry Ink 25th Anniversary Anthology, and Aquarius Press critical acclaimed anthology on the continuation of the Black Arts Movement – Black Fire This Time. Overall, he has appeared in nearly 40 anthologies and journals since the turn of this century.

Mr. Pringle’s writing has been described as having the urgency of Amiri Baraka and the deceptive ease of Langston Hughes. He has been influenced by the works of James Baldwin, Anna Akhmatova, Rita Dove, Everette Hoagland, Lamont Steptoe, Eleanor Wilner and younger poets like Jericho Brown and Ocean Vuong.

Chosen as one of the inaugural poets for the poetry hotline 1-855- POEM RX 2 focusing on poems to promote mental well-being, is one of his proudest accomplishments. Celebrating his support and encouragement to so many poets, not just in Philadelphia but throughout the US, in 2014 he was the subject of an hour-long television program ‘Mentor & Mentored’.

Elijah’s talent expands to other mediums. He has frequently appeared on stage as an actor, dancer, recitalist as well as a director and choreographer. Most recently he has added playwright and jazz vocalist to his list of accomplishments. He has lectured on creative writing in; Boston, New York, DC, Charleston, Princeton, Chicago, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Phoenix.

Mr. Pringle currently sits on the board for: Moonstone Art Center, Word Seed Inc., and TASTE Theater Company. As well as advising several other non-profit organizations.