6PM DOORS — FULL FOOD & BEVERAGE MENU AVAILABLE AT YOUR TABLE

7:30PM SHOWTIME
$20 ADVANCE // $25 DAY OF SHOW

Come join Button Poetry at Icehouse on February 16 to celebrate the release of Junious ‘Jay’ Ward’s poetry collection COMPOSITION. Junious is a National Poetry Slam Champion as well as the reigning Individual World Poetry Slam Champion. He is the inaugural and current Poet Laureate of Charlotte, NC. Each show ticket includes one copy of the new book!

In his debut full length collection, Junious ‘Jay’ Ward dives deep into the formation of self. Composition interrogates the historical perceptions of Blackness and biracial identity as documented through a Southern Lens. Utilizing a variety of poetic forms, Ward showcases to his readers an innovative approach as he unflinchingly explores the way language, generational trauma, loss, and resilience shape us into who we are, the stories we carry, and what we will inevitably pass on.

 Junious “Jay” Ward is a poet living in Charlotte, NC, and the author of Sing Me a Lesser Wound (Bull City Press). Jay is a National Poetry Slam champion, an Individual World Poetry Slam champion, and Charlotte’s inaugural Poet Laureate. He has attended and/or received support from Breadloaf Writers Conference, Callaloo, The Frost Place, Tin House Winter Workshop, and The Watering Hole, and currently serves as a Program Director for BreatheInk and Vice-Chair for The Watering Hole. His poems can be found in Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, Columbia Journal, The Amistad, Diode Poetry Journal, and elsewhere.