Poetry at the Manse: Toni Bee, Jesse Mavro Diamond, Therese Gleason

Please join us at The Old Manse in Concord, Mass., for this free event! The reading will be held under a tent outdoors, and the venue is accessible.

Toni Bee is a poet, educator, and photographer hailing from Boston, MA. She is a 2024-2025 GrubStreet Teaching Fellow as well as a workshop facilitator for Writers Without Margins and IWWG: International Women’s Writing Guild. Bee made history as the first woman to hold the esteemed position of Poet Populist of Cambridge and was also the Inaugural Cambridge Poetry Ambassador.  Toni’s journey as a poet began in high school and after gaining her BA at Simmons University, she self-published her first poetry book, “22 Again.”  Bee is a community builder who founded and curates Poets In The Garden currently in residence at The Longfellow House-Washington Headquarters in Cambridge, MA. The program amplifies the voices of BIPOC and all poetic and artistic individuals, welcoming them into public green spaces. Find out more about this poet’s journey at tonibee.org

Jesse Mavro Diamond has been writing poetry since childhood. Throughout the next six decades, her writing has explored issues of deep interest to her, including identity, gender politics and the diverse societal influences that shape our lives. Mavro Diamond’s experiences as a Jewish woman, lesbian feminist, martial artist, and teacher of English Language Arts at the secondary and college levels have informed every aspect of her writing. She is the author of four plays and six volumes of poetry, including American Queers, published in 2023 by Červená Barva Press. and Swimming the Hellespont, whose title poem was chosen to be honored by the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival. Most recently, she developed and taught the first Creative Writing Course in Boston Latin School’s 364-year History. Her work has been published and performed within the United States and internationally. Forthcoming, Aeolian Harp will publish her four linked sonnets, Ode For A Lute.

Therese Gleason‘s poetry, prose, and hybrid work have appeared in 32 Poems, America, Atticus Review, Cincinnati Review, Indiana Review, Lunch Ticket, New Ohio Review, Notre Dame Review, Rattle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, West Trade Review, and elsewhere. She is author of three chapbooks: Hemicrania (forthcoming, Chestnut Review, 2024), about living with chronic migraine; Matrilineal (Finishing Line, 2021; Honorable Mention, Jean Pedrick Chapbook Prize, New England Poetry Club); and Libation (co-winner, 2006 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Competition). Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, she currently lives with her family in central Massachusetts, where she teaches English language and literacy to multilingual learners in the Worcester Public Schools. She has been as an adjunct creative writing instructor at Clark University, and has an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University. https://theresegleason.com/.