Open Air Poets

Join us in the PEACE Park as Coventry Branch and Mac’s Backs Bookstore present an outdoor summer poetry series.

June's reading features poets: Janice Bury, Dr. Rosary Joyce-Kennedy and James Quarles

Janice Bury:

I started writing poetry 2 1/2 years ago when I was in Ireland and have been writing ever since. It is a way for me to cope with a radically changing world, emotionally and spiritually. I am a retired hospital social worker as well as a mother and grandmother. Life offers many ups and down giving an opportunity to grow as a human being every day.

Dr. Rosary-Joyce Kennedy:

Dr. Rosary-Joyce Kennedy is a poetess and an educator. She is originally from Cleveland, Ohio where she currently resides. For over thirty-five years, Dr. Kennedy has written poetry beginning in junior high school and has continued with the spoken word tradition as an undergraduate student. Her first poetry collections were Afro-Dei-She-Act, 1997 and herstoryinthemaking©, 1999. The Journey of Other Sons is her first chap book self-published and released in 2024, a lyrical archive that connects past and present. Through a series of intimate portraits and narrative verses, the poems in The Journey of Other Sons serve as ancestral resonance and a continuation of family legacy through storytelling. Her website, www.writeherdyechic.com/ launched in 2025.

James Quarels:

James Quarles is an artist from Cleveland, Ohio with a focus on painting, graphic design, and illustration, graduating from Columbus College of Art & Design in 2009 he now resides and works in his Cleveland home. He has used his talents in both visual and written expression for activism and curating spaces in the city. Quarles is a muralist for local businesses and organizations, he also creates graphics for music groups, venues, and art and political establishments. With a style that lends from pop art to folklore, he is inspired and informed by all configurations of media, culture, and history. Quarles has a scrupulous attention to detail that he uses along with bright color palettes to engage in social commentary and seeks to invoke and balance the likes of previous artists such as Emory Douglas, and the great Shel Silverstein.