Queer, Muslim, American, poet and prose writer Kazim Ali has always navigated complex intersections and interstices, just to make a life. In his newest collection, Inquisition, he offers a mixture of lyrics, narratives, fragments, prose poems, and spoken word, in which he answers longstanding questions about identity, and the role of the artist or poet in times of political or social upheaval. He answers these questions under duress: An inquisition is dangerous, after all, especially to Muslims whose poetry, art, and spiritual life have always depended not on the Western ideal of a known God or a definitive text, but on the concepts of "abstraction, geometry, vertigo."

This program is presented in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.

Preorder your copy of Inquisition through the CHF box office and save 20%.

A book signing will follow this program.