Audience at Young American. (Photo supplied by Sarah Browning)

It will be one year this September since the Wild Indigo Poetry Series began in Germantown, a journey to connect and bring together an already engaged poet and activist community in Northwest Philadelphia.

For Raina León, co-host and co-creator of the series alongside fellow poet Sarah Browning, it’s been a real joy and hope. 

“We are in times where it feels like the world is ending. And in some ways, that is absolutely true. It is a time of apocalypse, and apocalypse meaning revelation. And one can feel like that that leads to despair,” León said. 

She continued, “ And what I found through this series is connectedness and a resistance against numbing and saying, here we are looking boldly in the truth and activating and communicating really to see what we can do together. So poetry is powerful.”

The beginning 

Both Browning and León had each hosted poetry series before in other cities, and wanted a recurring series in Northwest Philadelphia, where they both live. 

They envisioned the space as intentionally multigenerational and multiracial, and to build community through the power of poetry. Additionally, they wanted it to be rooted in the neighboring land and people, hence the name Wild Indigo, after a native plant to this area. 

They partnered with Young American Hard Cider & Tasting Room, the primary venue, and the political organizing organization Reclaim Philadelphia to start the monthly series.

Following the launch, both poets were surprised by the continued success of the series.

For Browning, she was delighted to see people call it their “poetry home” so quickly. León was surprised that not only are there returning audiences every month, but almost half of the audience is always new as well. 

Each month has sold out, with many of the featured poets selling most of their books they come with. 

Favorite moments

Local poet Nzadi Keita, who grew up right around the block from Young American, was one of the featured poets in the series.

Not only was the location something special for her to showcase her poetry, but also the ability to showcase “38.(Migration Letter)” from her newest book “Migration Letters,”  a longer piece that described some of that time growing up right near that  6300 Germantown Avenue block.

A highlight for both Keita and Browning came when Keita invited a group of five Black women poets up to join her in reading the longer poem with her, each of them giving voice to a section of the poem.

“(To hear) many voices, a long excerpt from her book about their parents’ generation, the Great Migration generation… that was really moving. And especially because it was set there in Germantown,” said Browning.

For Browning, it felt like a powerful learning moment of the community’s history from the present-day readings.

Another standout was when they had to move January’s online reading due to snow.

Warren Longmire was the featured poet, and León said the online platform allowed Longmire to visually show the audience his poems, and they watched on screen how he put the poetry together as he read.

“It was this rare opportunity for us to actually see the poems that he was working with, which was a beautiful surprise,” said León.

The poetry

Of course, the poetry is good, Browning and León emphasize.

Featured poets have included everyone from the iconic Sonia Sanchez (mentioned by many as their favorite moment of the year), who read poems and then celebrated her 90th birthday at the series to highly revered spoken word poets Ursula Rucker and Denice Frohman. 

They also tell people not to discount the open mics.

León remembers one older gentleman who had never read at an open mic and shared a phenomenal poem that blew everyone away.

A movement – and a community – builds

Gabriel Ramirez, a queer, Afro-Caribbean poet originally from New York,  was one of the first featured poets in the series. 

He has loved the intentional space that Browning and León have set up – one that he sees as valuing deep listening – bringing him to attend many of the readings in the series besides his own. 

Every month, León does a land acknowledgment to the Indigenous people of the area every month, but also follows it through with some kind of small donation to Indigenous communities that steward the land. 

It’s those details, Ramirez says, that are so intentional and powerful about the series. 

Ramirez’s insight reflects what Lorraine Rice, another local featured poet, has observed about the series. 

Rice, a creative non-fiction and fiction writer, just recently started working on more of her own poetry. She recently won a fellowship through Cave Canem, a well-reputed program and community for Black poets that both Keita and León have also received. 

Rice started as an audience member. Then, she started reading at the open mic to both embrace her local poetry community and also appreciate the sound of poetry. She was impressed by the centering of poetry as a transformative act.

León and Browning know they aren’t the first to blend social justice and poetry in spaces together, but they are glad to be part of the story. 

Most of all, they both appreciate the overall community that has evolved in the year since the series started.

A now consistent favorite ritual of Browning’s at each reading is her or León telling folks to look around them and introduce themselves, and take about two minutes to tell people they are treasured. It has become one of the most joyful exchanges of the program. 

Browning says sometimes it takes two or three times to call people back after the exchange, and she was surprised at how successful that simple invitation has become. 

It may remind some folks of when churches tell their attendees to turn around and acknowledge and hug people around them for one or two minutes. 

Nzadi Keita says she looks for spaces that bring her mind and body, and spirit together, and she feels like Wild Indigo is one of those spaces. 

“I was raised as a churchgoer, and I don’t go to a formal church anymore, but Wild Indigo is one of my church spaces.”

Wild Indigo’s first anniversary reading will take place this Sunday, September 21, 2025, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Allens Lane Art Center (601 Allens Lane, 19119) in West Mt. Airy, which is wheelchair accessible. 

The featured poets will be former Philadelphia Poet Laureate Roque Raquel Salas Rivera and former San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin.

The event is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5.00. Reserve tickets ahead of the event here.