Harvard Book Store Presents:

Sarah Kay

presenting
A Little Daylight Left: Poems
joined by Amanda Torres and Sophia Janowitz

Harvard Book Store welcomes celebrated spoken word poet Sarah Kay—founder & co-director of Project VOICE and author of four books of poetry—to celebrate the publication of her long-awaited new collection, A Little Daylight Left, with a night of poetry and performance, featuring special guests. A decade after her beloved debut No Matter the Wreckage, Kay is back capturing life’s most vulnerable, messy, and uncertain moments. In this night of joyful connection, Kay will bring her poems to life on stage with her magnetic wit, humor, and compassion. Guest poet Amanda Torres—writer, educator, arts administrator, creative producer, and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education—will open the presentation. Following Sarah Kay’sreading, she will be joined by Sophia Janowitz—Art Director for Mobi in Somerville who made drawings for five of Kay’s book—for a conversation.

Ticketing

Tickets include admission for one and one hardcover copy of A Little Daylight Left pre-signed by the author.

About A Little Daylight Left

From somewhere down a hallway of locked doors, a voice asks, / What if you aren’t as bad as you suspect you are? / What if you’ll never be as good as you ache?

Beloved spoken word poet Sarah Kay brings us her long-awaited second full-length poetry collection, a decade after her acclaimed debut No Matter the Wreckage. In A Little Daylight Left, Kay explores life’s most vulnerable moments of transition with courage, curiosity, joy, and humor. Each poem invites readers to consider what it might look like to boldly face the hard things we so often run from—a heartbreak, an ailing loved one, the fear that comes with new beginnings and uncertain futures. The result is a blueprint for discovering beauty in all that makes us human. With her signature wit and wisdom, Kay shows us how to navigate life bravely, with every single part of ourselves.

Praise for A Little Daylight Left

“This is a book that will make you feel simultaneously alive and less alone.”—Hanif Abdurraqib, New York Times bestselling author of There’s Always This Year

“I have been anxiously awaiting Sarah Kay’s next book of poetry for years, and my god was it worth the wait. The poems in A Little Daylight Left beautifully excavate the expansive emotional landscape of family, friendship, love, and memory. They revel in gratitude and refuse to turn away from despair. These poems remind me what it is to be human. They remind me why Sarah Kay is one of my favorite writers.”—Clint Smith, #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word Is Passed

“A Little Daylight Left is an instance of wisdom and soul rising to meet the urgency of its world. Sarah Kay’s poems are conscious that they will be read by people with minds just as complex as her own. . . . There’s no condescension, no sneering or smug back-patting to be found. There’s just Kay’s often hilarious, always shattering clarities—a big, brilliant mind tethered to a big, brilliant heart.”—Kaveh Akbar, New York Times bestselling author of Martyr!

“A Little Daylight Left is made up of the kinds of poems you should share, memorize, and use as a beacon to guide yourself back to your boldest and most wonder-full you. A joy to read.”—Elizabeth Acevedo, National Book Award‒winning author of Family Lore

“Within the pages of A Little Daylight Left, Sarah Kay carries the poetic tradition of discovery and recovery. She is a prized memory keeper, offering readers a compass at the intersection of who you are and who you are brave enough to become. These poems are the homecoming you didn’t realize you needed.”—Mahogany L. Browne, author of Chrome Valley

Bios

Sarah Kay is a writer, performer, and educator from New York City. She is the author of four other books of poetry: B, No Matter the Wreckage, The Type, and All Our Wild Wonder. Kay is the founder and co-director of Project VOICE, an organization that uses poetry to entertain, educate, and empower students & educators in classrooms and communities worldwide.

Amanda Torres (AT) is a writer, educator, arts administrator, and creative producer from Chicago whose writing focuses on queer family, latine futurity, and social imaginaries. Their poems, short stories, and essays have appeared in Not Your Papi’s Utopia, The Acentos Review, Breakbeat Poets, and At Our Best: Building Youth-Adult Partnerships. They co-founded a youth literary arts organization in Boston, directed The National Incubator for Community Engaged Poets, and have taught and developed creative, justice-oriented events, installations, workshops, and curricula for young people, artists, and educators for over nineteen years. Currently, they teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Education & are an MFA candidate at Randolph College. You can find them at the beach or at amandatorreswrites.com.

Sophia Janowitz is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Cambridge. Her work has taken her to a typography masters in Paris, publication design for the Local Innovation Group at MIT, and tattoo illustration—as well as making drawings for five books by Sarah Kay. She is currently the Art Director for Mobi in Somerville, MA. sophiajanowitz.com

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.