Poetry reading with MARS. Marshall, Too Black, and Sylvia Thomas

Event Details

MARS. Marshall is a writer and cultural organizer born and raised in Detroit. Their work has been published in Obsidian Literature & Arts for the African Diaspora, Michigan Quarterly Review: The Mixtape, Foglifter Journal, Gertrude Press, and elsewhere. MARS is a 2021 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow in Poetry and a 2019 Lambda Literary Art Emerging Writers Fellow in Poetry. Their debut chapbook, FLOWER BOI, is available via Gold Line Press.

Too Black is a poet, scholar, organizer, and filmmaker who blends critical analysis with biting sarcasm. He’s headlined various stages and events, including at the historic Nuyorican [NEW-yo-REE-kan] Poets Café in New York City, at Princeton University, and at the Johannesburg Theater in South Africa. He’s the co-author of the book Laundering Black Rage: The Washing of Black Death, People, Property, and Profits. His words have been published in online publications such as Black Agenda Report, Hammer and Hope, Mondoweiss [MON-doh-WHICE], and Hood Communist. Too Black is the host of the Black Myths Podcast, a podcast debunking the BS said about Black people. He’s also the co-director of the award-winning documentary film The Pendleton 2: They Stood Up.

Sylvia Thomas is an artist and writer from Indianapolis. Her work focuses on sex, gender, grief, and euphoria. Over the last 10 years, she has exhibited and performed her work across North America and Europe, including the 2025 CLAVO art fair in Mexico City and a presentation for the United Nations Envoy on Youth in 2021. Sylvia is a long-term artist in residence for Big Car Collaborative, a 2024–25 Creative Renewal Arts Fellow through the Indy Arts Council, and a recipient of the 2023 Indianapolis Creative Risk Grant through the Herbert Simon Family Foundation.