Rally+PEN: Garrard Conley, Michelle García, Eduardo Martinez

In collaboration with PEN America and The Poetry Project, Garrard Conley and Michelle García will take the stage at Pete’s Candy Store on September 5th, 2019, at 7pm. We’ll also be featuring the work of currently incarcerated poet Eduardo (Echo) Martinez.

The Rally kicks off its third season in commemoration of the Attica Riots. Presented with PEN America and The Poetry Project, these leading literary warriors of the resistance will help highlight the work of incarcerated writers. Come see our terrific slate of readers perform, and offer them your questions, comments, and reactions. We’re the heart of a march in the body of a reading series—it’s a whole new helping of overtly political discourse.

PEN America is a literary arts organization that works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature. The Poetry Project promotes, fosters and inspires the reading and writing of contemporary poetry.

Pete’s Candy Store is located at 709 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg. Closest trains are the L/G at Lorimer/Metropolitan.

Check out more about our terrific lineup for this month’s event:

Garrard Conley
Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased (Penguin 2016), now a major motion picture and translated in over a dozen languages. Conley is also a producer and creator of the podcast UnErased, which explores the history of conversion therapy in America. His work can be found in The New York Times, TIME, VICE, CNN, BuzzFeed, Them, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Huffington Post, among other places, and he is currently at work on a novel (Penguin 2021) about queer 18th century lives.

Michelle García
Michelle García is a journalist and essayist. She is a fellow at the Open Society Foundations and she recently concluded the Dobie Paisano fellowship through The University ofTexas and the Texas Institute letters, which had her ensconced on a Texas ranch, roaming the brush, avoiding snakes and listening to lions roar. She recently created and edited the Rewriting the West series, published by Guernica magazine. She divides her time between NYC and her home state of Texas. She can be reached at: [email protected] or found at @pistoleraprod.

Eduardo (Echo) Martinez
Eduardo (Echo) Martinez has been telling tall tales since he was little. He is a Native Floridian who is currently serving a life sentence and has been incarcerated for over 19 years. Eduardo has been published in Cuban Counterpoints, Scalawag, The Don’t Shake the Spoon: A Literary Journal, the Miami Herald, Anthology Bckinder, and PBS N.Y.. He can be heard online.











When: Thu., Sep. 5, 2019 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

In collaboration with PEN America and The Poetry Project, Garrard Conley and Michelle García will take the stage at Pete’s Candy Store on September 5th, 2019, at 7pm. We’ll also be featuring the work of currently incarcerated poet Eduardo (Echo) Martinez.

The Rally kicks off its third season in commemoration of the Attica Riots. Presented with PEN America and The Poetry Project, these leading literary warriors of the resistance will help highlight the work of incarcerated writers. Come see our terrific slate of readers perform, and offer them your questions, comments, and reactions. We’re the heart of a march in the body of a reading series—it’s a whole new helping of overtly political discourse.

PEN America is a literary arts organization that works to ensure that people everywhere have the freedom to create literature. The Poetry Project promotes, fosters and inspires the reading and writing of contemporary poetry.

Pete’s Candy Store is located at 709 Lorimer Street in Williamsburg. Closest trains are the L/G at Lorimer/Metropolitan.

Check out more about our terrific lineup for this month’s event:

Garrard Conley
Garrard Conley is the author of the New York Times Best Selling memoir Boy Erased (Penguin 2016), now a major motion picture and translated in over a dozen languages. Conley is also a producer and creator of the podcast UnErased, which explores the history of conversion therapy in America. His work can be found in The New York Times, TIME, VICE, CNN, BuzzFeed, Them, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Huffington Post, among other places, and he is currently at work on a novel (Penguin 2021) about queer 18th century lives.

Michelle García
Michelle García is a journalist and essayist. She is a fellow at the Open Society Foundations and she recently concluded the Dobie Paisano fellowship through The University ofTexas and the Texas Institute letters, which had her ensconced on a Texas ranch, roaming the brush, avoiding snakes and listening to lions roar. She recently created and edited the Rewriting the West series, published by Guernica magazine. She divides her time between NYC and her home state of Texas. She can be reached at: [email protected] or found at @pistoleraprod.

Eduardo (Echo) Martinez
Eduardo (Echo) Martinez has been telling tall tales since he was little. He is a Native Floridian who is currently serving a life sentence and has been incarcerated for over 19 years. Eduardo has been published in Cuban Counterpoints, Scalawag, The Don’t Shake the Spoon: A Literary Journal, the Miami Herald, Anthology Bckinder, and PBS N.Y.. He can be heard online.

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