Special Screening: The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke — Season 2

About this event

Journeying to Washington, D.C., for its second season, The Poet Speaks uncovers the voices, histories, and creative traditions that give a city its cultural identity. Through intimate conversations and powerful storytelling, the series examines how poetry preserves memory, connects generations, and gives voice to the experiences that shape our communities. Created and directed by Amanda Eke, the series explores poetry, oral traditions, cultural heritage, and the power of storytelling through conversations with the poets, artists, educators, historians, and cultural keepers preserving and shaping our collective stories. This special screening invites audiences to experience an episode of the series and join a conversation celebrating poetry, cultural memory, and the enduring power of the spoken word.

Amanda Eke is a Nigerian-American spoken-word poet, filmmaker, journalist and television host, whose work explores cultural identity, social issues, and the transformative power of storytelling. In 2024, she became the first Black woman to create and host a standalone show on The Archaeology Channel with her groundbreaking docu-series, The Poet Speaks with Amanda Eke —also the first original series produced for Heritage Broadcasting’s streaming platform. A Fulbright Fellow, United Nations Artistry Award recipient, and Guinness World Record holder, Eke’s journey is rooted in resilience. She did not learn to read until age seven, yet went on to build an internationally recognized body of work bridging art, education, and advocacy. Through The Poet Speaks , her internationally touring poetry workshop, and her award-winning podcast of the same name, she has inspired audiences worldwide to experience poetry as both personal expression and collective power.

Brian Gilmore is a poet, writer, public interest attorney, and columnist with the Progressive Media Project. He is a Cave Canem Fellow (1997), Kimbilio Fellow (2014), Literature Fellow for the D.C. Commission on Arts and Humanities (1997), Pushcart Prize nominee (2007), and winner of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Individual Artist Award (2001 and 2003). Gilmore has been a contributing writer for Ebony-Jet.com , and JazzTimes Magazine . He is the author of two collections of poetry: elvis presley is alive and well and living in harlem , and Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags: Poem for Duke Ellington . His poems and writings are widely published and have appeared in The Progressive, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun , and many other publications. He teaches law at the Michigan State University College of Law, where he lectures and writes on contemporary issues relating to housing and economic inequality, dividing his time between Michigan and his beloved birthplace, Washington, D.C.