Debbie Allen, Rochelle Hurt & Alynn Mahle (August 3)

First Wednesday Readers Series presents Debbie Allen of Youngstown, Rochelle Hurt of Orlando, and Alynn Mahle of Cleveland. Barbara Marie Minney will co-host. The featured readers will be followed by an open mic. We will also be celebrating National Watermelon Day. Wednesday, August 3 at 7:00 at the Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St.

Debbie Allen cofounded Poets Against Racism USA, headlined at Poets Against Racism Goes Global during the 2022 Nottingham (UK) Poetry Festival, and has served as a Poets Reading the News associate poetry editor. Debbie’s poems have appeared in The Watershed Journal and Tobeco. Much of her work responds to injustices.

Rochelle Hurt is the author of the poetry collections The J Girls: A Reality Show (Indiana University Press, 2022); In Which I Play the Runaway (Barrow Street, 2016); and The Rusted City (White Pine, 2014). Originally from Youngstown, she now lives in Orlando and teaches at the University of Central Florida.

Alynn Mahle is a memoir coach, poet, grandmother of eight and aspiring picture-book author. As a semi-retired English professor, Alynn spends her leisure time tending tomatoes, doing word puzzles and playing with her extraordinary cat Finnigan. She and Finn live with a roommate in Cleveland Ohio.