CAAPP Presents: Interlocutor Goddess Book Launch
KST Partner
Interlocutor Goddess Book Launch
Friday, October 17, 2025
7:00pm
KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
FREE
The Center for African American Poetry and Poetics presents the Pittsburgh Book Launch for
Poet Jasmine Reid, winner of the 2024 CAAPP Book Prize. Reid will be in conversation with
poet and performer Douglas Kearney to celebrate the publication of her debut collection,
Interlocutor Goddess, from Autumn House Press. Reid and Kearney will both read and join in
conversation about their poetics, followed by a brief Q&A. Book sale & signing to follow.
About the book:
Interlocutor Goddess explores the creation of a trans language for selfhood within an exilic state
of “ecstatic grief.” Reid’s experimental work challenges societal norms, particularly the family as
a political construct, while reflecting on the trans experiences of a queer Black woman. The
poems grapple with oppressive systems of separation and colonial legacies, rejecting extractive,
empire-driven paradigms and gender essentialism. Within her collection, Reid envisions
alternative, ethical ways of being, rooted in unity and wholeness, and finds kinship with the
rhythms and lifeways of the natural world—soil, stars, and water…At its core, Interlocutor
Goddess is an act of transfiguration, a celebration of girlhood, and a reclamation of wholeness
for all who exist beyond imposed boundaries.
Photo Credit: Nico Reano