Courtesy Photo Michigan Poet Laureate Nandi Comer will visit Alpena in two free events on Sept. 14 and 15. The first is from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at PIF Cider, and the second is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15 at the Granum Theatre on the campus of Alpena Community College.

ALPENA — Michigan Poet Laureate Nandi Comer will visit Alpena Sept. 14 and 15 in two free events.

Comer will share her poetry and engage with the Alpena community at a Poetics Lab open mic night from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at PIF Cider in Alpena.

Then, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15, Comer will do a formal reading and question and answer session at Granum Theatre on the campus of Alpena Community College.

Registration is required for the Granum Theatre event on Sunday. To register, visit tpoeticslab.com/event-details/nandi-comer-does-a-formal-reading and click on the ticket link.

The Poetics Lab and the Alpena County George N. Fletcher Public Library are thrilled to welcome Comer to Alpena.

Mitchel Dipzinski, co-executive director and program facilitator for the Poetics Lab, encourages people to register early for the Sunday program.

“We want to make sure that you have a spot,” Dipzinski said.

This is the first time a Michigan Poet Laureate has visited Alpena, making this an opportunity not to be missed. Can’t attend in person? Virtual tickets are available for the Sunday program.

“Poet Laureates are nominated by individuals within the community, and they are typically highly renowned not only for their poetry, but also for their community work,” Dipzinski said. “Nandi has done a lot of phenomenal work in the Detroit area in diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is just a phenomenal speaker … I’m really excited about it.”

Comer was raised in Detroit. She received a B.A. in English and in Spanish with an emphasis on Latin American culture from the University of Michigan. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Callaloo, and a translation fellowship by US Poets in Mexico. Her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, The Journal of Pan African Studies, Sycamore Review, and Third Coast. She is the author of “American Family: Syndrome” (Finishing Line Press) and “Tapping Out” (Northwestern University Press), which was awarded the 2020 Society of Midland Authors Award and the 2020 Julie Suk Award. Her writing received the Vera Myer Strube Award in poetry and she is the winner of Crab Orchard Review’s 2014 Richard Peterson Poetry Prize. In 2016 she completed a Master of Arts in African American Literature from the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from the English Department at Indiana University. She is a 2019 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow.

Over the years, Comer has been dedicated to youth development by serving as a writer-in-residence in Detroit Public Schools and community centers. She has also worked in collaboration with organizations including YArts and InsideOut Literary Arts Projects. She served as a curriculum developer and youth curriculum consultant for various arts organizations and in 2018 she received William Wiggins Award for Outstanding Teaching at Indiana University.

In 2013 Comer debuted “Pedestrians,” a choreo-poem created in collaboration with Indiana University’s African American dance company. She was awarded the 2014 Pioneer Award by the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies in recognition of her commitment to scholarship and production of the arts that explore African American traditions.

Her most recent poetry and performance project, Techno Poetics, was an interdisciplinary performance program that used poetry to tell the story of the origins of techno and contemporary Detroit music. Informed by her experiences growing up in Detroit, Comer writes and performs literary pieces that incorporate the history of the city while also examining race, gender, sexuality, and class.

She is currently the co-director of Detroit Lit, a program dedicated to providing reading and professional development opportunities to narrative makers of color in Detroit. She is a community leader, an educator, an activist, and a very passionate writer dedicated to supporting contemporary voices.

The Poetics Lab has partnered with PIF Cider, Alpena County Library, and Parallel 45 Books and Gifts to bring this event to Alpena.

“It’s a lot of good people coming together for a lot of good fun,” Dipzinski said.

Sponsors include Alpena Agency, Auto-Owners Insurance, Walmart Spark Good Grant, and Alpena Community College Foundation’s Granum Grant.

Dom Witten is co-executive director of the Poetics Lab, bringing events to the Detroit and Hamtramck areas. Dipzinski heads up the Alpena area events.