BELFAST — Left Bank Books, in downtown Belfast, invites the public to meet poet Toussaint St. Negritude, Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 6:30 p.m., at the bookshop. Toussaint will read from Mountain Spells, his debut collection of poems, featuring an ensemble of cosmic tones the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks once called “full of sweet sounds and surprises.”

St. Negritude is the former poet laureate of Belfast and was a 2024 nominee for Poet Laureate of the State of Vermont where he now lives. His poetry has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Savannah Literary Journal, Philadelphia Stories, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian among other publications. In addition to his work as a writer, St. Negritude is a bass clarinetist, composer, and leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz.

Through the inspiration of life, jazz, and nature, Mountain Spells is about the intrinsic clarity of emancipation, expressing all found intersections of St. Negritude sees and experiences, and how this Black/queer/high-hat-wearing artist envisions the world through the lens of spirituality, the African diaspora, and nature as his home. Each poem expresses the whole cosmos of collective liberation.

“I listened to the birds, to the sky, what the leaves were telling me,” St. Negritude says, and "captured it all in improvisational, freeform, and musical poetry."

Reservations for this free event may be made by calling Left Bank Books (207-338-9009) or emailing info@leftbankbookshop.com.

Left Bank Books is located in the historic Opera House building in downtown Belfast. Ample free parking is available in front of the shop and in an adjacent city lot.