City of Asylum
Giving Voice.
Six-time Jazz Poetry Month headliner James Brandon Lewis takes to the stage with his punk-jazz fusion band, the Messthetics, and poets Mark Andryczyk, Rania Mamoun, and Volodymyr Rafeyenko to herald in another month of poetry and improvisational jazz collaboration at City of Asylum.
Jazz Poetry 2026 welcomes Marta Sánchez for a stunning solo-piano album release, with compositions inspired by themes of isolation and solitude, as well as intimate, improvisational poetry collaborations with four City of Asylum Writers-in-Residence.
Innately fusion, this concert and book launch debuts poems by Erika Denae J that have leapt off the page and been adapted into musical compositions, brought to life with a 13-piece band including the likes of Jennifer Orchard, John Shannon, Theron Brown, Denzel Chismar-Oliver, James Johnson III, and more.
Writer-in-Residence Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko and wife Mari Frazé-Frazénko bring the spellbinding sound of their folk-experimental duo—accompanied by fellow musicians Vsiudysvoia, Lesya Verba, and Hugo Cruz—to Alphabet City for a night of reimagined Eastern European songs.
Welcome rock band The Leila on their debut North American tour as they blend elements of rock, soul, and traditional Moroccan sounds in songs about self-expression, empowerment, and societal issues.
Our On Topic series continues this season with a moderated discussion among free speech experts, who will get into the weeds of current controversies and the role free expression plays in maintaining a democratic government.
From the minds of Andrew Swensen and Yan Pang, City of Asylum hosts an expanded showcase of “Shelter,” the story of scars carried from childhood into adulthood, how pain can distort our perception and damage our relationships, and how we find our strength through it.
