Women Speak

A Performance of Many Voices by Women of Appalachia Project

Poetry readings by contributors to “Women Speak Volume 8,” a publication of the Women of Appalachia Project provided by women throughout 11 Appalachian states. 

Hosted by Uncloistered Poetry and the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

Coordinated by Editor and Poet Laureate of Ohio, Kari Gunter-Seymour, this event will include readings by contributors to “Women Speak Volume 8,” a publication of the Women of Appalachia Project provided by women throughout 11 Appalachian states. 

The Women of Appalachia Project encourages participation from women of diverse backgrounds, ages and experiences to come together, inviting submissions of spoken word and fine art, shared in public forums and annual anthologies. Artists share culture and experiences, embrace issues of marginalization and stereotype, creating a force, unified and non-violently confrontational, to show the whole woman, beyond superficial factors often used to judge her.  

Kari Gunter-Seymour's poetry collections include Alone in the House of My Heart (Ohio University Swallow Press, 2022) and A Place So Deep Inside America It Can’t Be Seen (Sheila Na Gig Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Ohio Poet of the Year Award. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Verse Daily, World Literature Today, and on Poem-a-Day. A ninth generation Appalachian, she is the editor of I Thought I Heard A Cardinal Sing: Ohio’s Appalachian Voices, funded through an Academy of American Poets Fellowship Grant and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Women of Appalachia Project’s anthology series, Women Speak. Gunter-Seymour is the founder/director of Women of Appalachia Project; founder, curator, and host of “Spoken & Heard,” a seasonal performance series featuring poets, writers, and musicians from across the country; an artist in residence at the Wexner Center for the Arts and a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio. 

Uncloistered Poetry is a monthly reading series based in Toledo hosted by Lucas County Poet Laureate Jonie McIntire. Uncloistered Poetry brings poets from all over the country to read in Toledo and even hosts monthly online readings with an international following.