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Please arrive 15 minutes early to register for the event and browse books. Buying a book before or after the event is a great way to support the Making Worlds project!

Join poet Bitania Yemane for a reading and signing of Words of Yesterday—a poetry collection that, while themeless in structure, is deeply inspired by Langston Hughes’ concept of dreams and the scattered thoughts of resistance, love, social justice, and identity. The evening includes an interactive workshop exploring how writers like Hughes, Audre Lorde, and other Black and marginalized voices have used language to reflect and reshape the times we live in.

Bitania Yemane is a Philadelphia-based poet, climate justice activist, clean energy consultant, and the founder of Metaphoric Aroma, a candle business that uniquely pairs scent with original poetry. Born and raised in Harrisburg, she holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver. Her writing weaves together themes of identity, memory, love, resistance, social justice, and healing. As a first-generation Eritrean American, Bitania draws from her rich cultural heritage and personal experiences to create work that bridges individual stories with collective struggles for justice and liberation.

Words of Yesterday is a collection born from the quiet moments and loud questions that shape us. Sprawling across love, dreams, fear, and politics, these poems and prompts are fragments—unfiltered and unbound by theme yet deeply connected by the shared pulse of reflection.

This is not a book that offers answers, but one that invites you to pause, feel, and maybe write a few lines of your own. In the scattered language of artists, dreamers, and everyday souls, Words of Yesterday holds space for the beautiful mess of thought.A journal of memory, a whisper of protest, a mirror to the self—this is poetry for those still becoming.