Free to members or with admission
Join Maya Williams, former Portland Poet Laureate in Grace Hartigan: The Gift of Attention. Maya will share their own work in conversation with Hartigan’s paintings, highlighting the ongoing exchange between visual art and language.
This reading is part of the PMA’s Poetry in Dialogue series, which invites visitors to experience Grace Hartigan: The Gift of Attention through fresh voices, echoing the power of poetic influences that shape artists’ practice.
Maya Williams is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor. Eir debut full length poetry collection Judas & Suicide was a finalist for a New England Book Award. Their second full length poetry collection, Refused a Second Date, was a finalist for a Maine Literary Award. They won two chapbook prizes: What's So Wrong with a Pity Party Anyway? in 2024 and Feminine Morbidity in 2025. Maya contributed prose to venues Sacred & Subversive, The Rumpus, Black Girl Nerds, LGBTQ Nation, The Daily Beast, Honey Literary, Talk Death, and more. You can follow more of Maya's work at mayawilliamspoet.com
Join us every Friday at noon for a 30-minute gallery talk with curators, artists, and community voices exploring art, the PMA Collection, and creative practice.