Adam Falkner: Poetry Performance

Dr. Adam Falkner is a poet, educator and arts & culture strategist. He is the author of Adoption (winner of the 2017 Diode Editions Chapbook Award) and The Willies (Button Poetry, 2020), and his work has appeared in a range of print and media spaces including on programming for HBO, NBC, NPR, BET, in the New York Times, and elsewhere. A former high school English teacher in New York City’s public schools, Adam is the Founder and Executive Director of the pioneering diversity consulting initiative, the Dialogue Arts Project, in which capacity he develops and facilitates trainings for schools, companies and cultural institutions across the nation. Adam has toured the United States as a guest artist, lecturer and consultant for thousands of students,educators and corporate employees, and was the featured performer at President Obama’s Grassroots Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. He holds a Ph.D. in English and Education from Columbia University.

About The Willies : In this tender and fierce debut, Adam Falkner offers a sharp new portrait of the journey into queerhood and masculinity in America. Masquerading white boy. Child of an addict. Closeted varsity athlete. Through snapshots of “Willies,” both tragic and humorous, merciless and humane, these poems ask us to give name to what scares us most. And to consider who we become if we do not.

“FALKNER TRACES QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY, FAMILY, LOVE & THE SELF. HIS LANGUAGE IS ANGULAR AND SURPRISING, HIS CONTENT INTIMATE AND PROFOUND.” — Andrew Solomon

“THIS IS TRUTH THAT CHANGES THE AIR IT REACHES. THIS IS POETRY THAT, DAMN IT, YOU JUST CAN’T SHAKE.” — Patricia Smith