Charlottesville Reading Series announces performers for May event

The Charlottesville Reading Series will host a reading and musical performance on Friday, May 20, from 7-8 p.m. at New Dominion Bookshop.

The in-person event will feature readings by poet Abdul Ali and writer Erin O’Hare, as well as original music by Nathaniel Star. The event is free to attend and open to the public. The bookshop recommends arriving early for the best seating.

Ali is the author of Trouble Sleeping, his debut collection of poems that won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Book Prize, and is the current editor-at-large of Pleiades. He has held distinguished teaching appointments at Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, and Howard University. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Cave Canem Foundation, the Robert Deutsch Foundation, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He has published his poems in numerous journals and publications, including Copper Nickel, Plume, and Transition. Ali lives and creates in Baltimore, MD, where he is the cofounder of Thrive Arts. For more information, visit abdulali.net.

O’Hare is a journalist and radio DJ based in Charlottesville. She is the neighborhoods reporter for Charlottesville Tomorrow and prior to that, she reported on arts and culture for C-VILLE Weekly for nearly five years. She regularly contributes to the Celluloid Lunch zine, and her writing has been featured in Maximumrocknroll, Women in Sound, Bandcamp Daily, The Australian, and elsewhere. She hosts “Ye Olde Tuesday Afternoon Rocke Show” and “Black Circle Revolution” on WTJU 91.1 FM and plays bass in a post-punk/jangly dream pop band called Films On Song. For more information, visit erinohare.com.

Star breathes music. His performance and writing credits feature some of the most respected names in the music industry, from regional stars to a Grammy Award–winning artist. For more information, visit nathanielstar.bandcamp.com.