ForImmediate Release Contact: City Art Director Joel Long: joeltlong@yahoo.com Brian Laidlaw, Ryan Jones,and Yolanda Franklin to read at City Art Salt Lake Public Library Main Branch 210 East 400 South Salt Lake City UT 84111 Wednesday October 17th, 7:00—8:00 P.M. Poets Brian Laidlaw, Ryan Jones, and Yolanda Franklin visitthe City Public Library on Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00 PM. This event ispart of the City Art Reading Series. A companion volume to Laidlaw’s 2015 project,The Stuntman, The Mirrormaker fuses the stories of two fabled couples: themythical Narcissus and Echo, and Bob Dylan and Echo Star Helstrom, subject ofthe song “Girl from the North Country.” But where The Stuntman focused onNarcissus, The Mirrormaker takes its primary inspiration from Echo, drawing onecocritical readings of American history and interrogating the masculine logicof resource extraction. Brian Laidlaw is a poet, songwriter and educatorfrom Northern California. He earned an MFA in Poetry at the University ofMinnesota, and then joined the Songwriting faculty at McNally Smith College ofMusic in St. Paul, MN Hisrecent releases include thevinyl-LP-plus-poetry-chapbook AMORATORIUM (Paper Darts Press), the book/albumTHE STUNTMAN (Milkweed Editions), and the 7” vinyl single JEREMIAD (Hymie’sVintage Records), as well as the forthcoming full-length collection THEMIRRORMAKER (Milkweed Editions, 2018). The organization of the Blood Vinyls as tracks,with each track as a theme, illuminates these soulful, gorgeous,intelligently-crafted poems, capturing the black South and womanhood sointimately, and with such knowing — an edgy discography of Florida and thecontentions of gender and race in the South. Franklin understands, like ZoraNeale Hurston, how to pen intimate narratives that reveal a distinctive aspectof southern history, and its customs stemming from the legacies of slavery andbeyond. Yolanda J. Franklin is a Cave Canem and CallalooFellow, a recipient of a 2016-2017 McKnight Dissertation Fellowship and aKingsbury writing award. Franklin is a Visiting Assistant Professor at FloridaAgricultural & Mechanical University. Her poems appear in the current issueor are forthcoming in the following journals: Hayden’s Ferry Review, SouthernHumanities Review, and the Apalachee Review. Her poetry also appears in therecent anthology “It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop” and is a two-timerecipient of a J.M. Shaw Academy of American Poets Award. Franklin is a thirdgeneration Floridian, born in the state’s capital — Tallahassee. She lovesdancing to old school hip-hop, baking, food tasting, and can be found at herfavorite coffee shop, Black Dog Café in Railroad Square enjoying a drink thebaristas named after her. Ryan Jones began performing spoken word in 2012after joining the B.L.A.C.K Poets in Macon, GA. After entering and winning hisfirst competitive poetry slam that same year (Bad Mamma Jamma Slam, Hosted byA.A.C. in Milledgeville), Ryan helped to lead Mercer University's inauguralpoetry slam team to the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in 2015, wherethey placed 20th in the nation for collegiate spoken word. In 2016, Ryan ledMercer University's team back to C.U.P.S.I. as an assistant coach and teampoet. In 2017, Ryan represented the Java Monkey Slam Team in Atlanta, GA at theNational Poetry Slam in Denver, Colorado. Ryan also competed in the IndividualWorld Poetry Slam in 2017, and competed in and won the TedX Peachtree PoetrySlam the same year. In 2018, Ryan became a Cave Canem Fellow, and also won theArt Amok Grand Slam Finals, making him the 2018 Art Amok Slam Champion. In November 2016, Ryan founded Homegrown Poetry,a spoken word outlet dedicated to uplifting and showcasing both adult and youthspoken word artists in the Atlanta area. Ryan is currently based in Atlanta, GAand is dedicated to community and youth outreach through Spoken Word and otherperformative arts. This event was made possible with support fromThe City Library, City Art, and Utah Humanities. Mostfeatured readings are followed by an open reading. Theevent is free and open to the public. City Art is sponsored by the Utah Arts Council, the Salt Lake City ArtsCouncil, Zoo, Arts, and Parks, X-mission, and audience donations. Joel Long