(PRINCETON, NJ) -- Princeton Makes, a Princeton-based artist cooperative, and Ragged Sky Press, a local publisher focused on poetry, will host a Second Sunday Poetry Reading on Sunday, April 9 at 4:00pm.  The readings will take place at the Princeton Makes store in the Princeton Shopping Center. The April reading will feature Ellen Foos and Rhinold Ponder. Their readings will be followed by an open mic available to up to 10 audience members who would like to read their original poetry.  

Ellen Foos is the founder and publisher of Ragged Sky Press and was the recipient of a fellowship to MacDowell and the Vermont Studio Center. Her first collection of poems, Little Knitted Sister, was published in 2006 and her poetry has appeared in U.S.1 Worksheets, Contemporary American Voices, Edison Literary Review, and the Curator. Her most recent collection, The Remaining Ingredients, won honorable mention in the 2015 Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Contest.

Rhinold Ponder, an artist, writer, lawyer-activist, resides in Princeton. His journey as a poet began in 7th grade in the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), a leader in the Black Arts Movement, in Chicago. Under the tutelage of Illinois Poet Laureate Angela Jackson, he won a poetry competition judged by Gwendolyn Brooks. While at Princeton University, he studied under U.S. Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz and Caribbean writer John Hearne at the University of West Indies.  For his first significant reading of his poetry in three decades, he will share work from his unpublished, recent manuscript “Inheritance of the Dispossessed.” 

Princeton Makes is a cooperative comprised of 35 local artists who work across a range of artistic genres, including painting, drawing, stained glass, sculpture, textiles, and jewelry. Customers will be able to support local artists by shopping for a wide variety of art, including large paintings, prints, custom-made greeting cards, stained glass lamps and window hangings, jewelry in a variety of designs and patterns, and more.  

Ragged Sky Press is a small, highly selective cooperative press.  They work with their authors closely.  Authors retain copyright and they use their experience and professional resources to support the author’s work through the editing, production, and design process.  Ragged Sky Press has historically focused on mature voices, overlooked poets, and women's perspectives.