Please join us on Tuesday, November 20th for the fifth iteration of Making Roads, a prose reading series and salon for Philadelphia-area and visiting writers. Making Roads invites writers to read casually from longer works and works in progress and engage in open discussion with guests. THIS EVENT WILL BE A BENEFIT FOR RECLAIM PHILADELPHIA'S MASS LIBERATION CAMPAIGN AND THE PHILADELPHIA COMMUNITY BAIL FUND. Guests will be asked for a suggested donation of $10 at the door.

Reading at this event will be:

Rasheedah Phillips

Rasheedah Phillips is the Managing Attorney of the Landlord-Tenant Housing Unit at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. Rasheedah’s writing has appeared in Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late Capitalist Sturggle, Temple University Political and Civil Rights Journal, Villanova Law Review, Organize Your Own Catalogue, and many other publications. Rasheedah is the founder of The AfroFuturist Affair, Black Quantum Futurism Collective, a founding member of Metropolarity Queer Scifi Collective, and a self-published speculative fiction author of multiple books. She is also the co-creator of the award-winning Community Futures Lab project, a socially engaged art project utilizing themes of communal temporality, futurism, and preservation of memory and history in an area undergoing redevelopment, gentrification, and mass displacement.

Raquel Salas-Rivera

Raquel Salas Rivera es la poeta laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19. Sus poemas han aparecido en revistas tales como la Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apogee, PEN Poetry
Series y McSweeney’s.

Del 2016-2018 fue co-editora de la revista literaria The Wanderer y co-editora de Puerto Rico en mi corazón, una colección bilingüe de volantes de poetas puertorriqueños contemporáneos. Durante el
verano del 2018 trabajó junto con Raena Shirali, Kirwyn Sutherland y Ashley Davis, organizando un festival llamado We (Too) Are Philly e inspirado por el poema “I, Too” de Langston Hughes.

Es la primera recipiente del Ambroggio Prize de la Academia de Poetas Americanos (Academy of American Poets) por su libro en español con traducciones al inglés, x/ex/exis. Cuenta con la
publicación de seis plaquetas y cuatro poemarios. Su último libro, lo terciario/the tertiary, enfrenta la ley PROMESA, fue semifinalista para el Premio Nacional del Libro del 2018 (2018 National Book
Award) y fue seleccionado por Publishers Weekly como uno de los mejores poemarios del 2018. En el 2019, Birds, LLC publicará su quinto libro while they sleep (under the bed is another country) junto con imágenes realizadas por la artista puertorriqueña Mariana Ramos Ortiz.

Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Their work has appeared in journals such as the the Journal of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture (Revista del Instituto de Cultura
Puertorriqueña), Apogee, PEN Poetry Series and McSweeney’s.

From 2016-2018, they were co-editor of The Wanderer and co-editor of Puerto Rico en mi corazón, a collection of bilingual broadsides of contemporary Puerto Rican poets. This summer, they spent
countless hours alongside Raena Shirali, Kirwyn Sutherland, and Ashley Davis organizing a festival called We (Too) Are Philly, inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, “I, Too.”

They are the first recipient of the Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets for their dual-language book x/ex/exis. They have authored six chapbooks as well as four full-length poetry
books. Their latest book, lo terciario/the tertiary, confronts the PROMESA bill, was on the 2018 National Book Award Longlist, and was selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the best poetry
books of 2018. In 2019, Birds, LLC will publish their fifth book while they sleep (under the bed is another country), which will include images created by the Puerto Rican artist Mariana Ramos Ortiz.

About Reclaim Philadelphia's Mass Liberation Campaign:

Reclaim Philadelphia’s Mass Liberation Campaign (MLC) mobilizes formerly incarcerated citizens and those directly affected by incarceration to be leaders in the fight to end mass incarceration, with a vision of building issue-based campaigns that target unjust policing and carceral practices in Philadelphia. MLC believes that in order to fight mass incarceration, power must be returned to the people who have been stripped of it by systematic racism and violence. This base will not only develop into leaders within the movement but recruit, empower, and educate others to join the fight in ending the exploitation, oppression, and disenfranchisement of black and brown Philadelphians.

About the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund:

The Philadelphia Community Bail Fund posts bail for residents of Philadelphia who cannot afford to pay bail and works to bring to light to the inequities of the use of cash bail in Philadelphia and to advocate for the abolition of bail and pretrial detention in our city.

We know that Philly jails are filled with people who spend weeks, months, or even years incarcerated while waiting for court, simply because they do not have the money to pay for their own freedom. Pre-trial detention leads to higher rates of conviction, the pressure to accept guilty pleas, longer sentences, and traumatic disruption of lives including loss of jobs, housing, mental health supports, and devastated families

By paying bail, our fund supports individuals in remaining at home with their families and communities while fighting their cases.

The Philadelphia Community Bail Fund (also known as that Philly Bail Out Jawn) is run by a collective of volunteer grassroots organizers and active members of the community, and we are committed to organizing with and for the people most directly impacted by the racist system of mass incarceration, criminalization and policing. We use a non-judgmental approach and do not consider a person’s charges to respect an individual’s constitutional right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.