Play Dates with Po’Jazz

Poet Laureate Community Outreach Series Playdates with Po’Jazz Summer 2026 Poetry and Jazz in performance and improvisation Poet Laureate Community Outreach Series Partially funded by Poets & Writers Free admission and snacks Featuring the Po’Jazz Ensemble: Christopher Dean Sullivan, Jazz Griot/Bassist | David Lowe, Keyboard Ayana Lowe, Vocalist | Golda Solomon, Word Special guest: Jo-Ann Dammacco Po’Jazz welcomes featured poet Jo-Ann Dammacco, writer, poet, storyteller, and creator of Illuminated Words. Through soulful, accessible free verse, Jo-Ann explores the moments, memories, relationships, losses, laughter, and unexpected truths that shape our lives. Her work is rooted in the belief that poetry doesn’t belong only to poets — it lives in the way we remember, the things we notice, the stories we carry, and the words that sometimes surprise us when we finally allow them to come. What happens when an entire room becomes the poet? In this interactive Po’Jazz experience, Jo-Ann invites the audience to join the creative process. Through spontaneous words, memories, images, and phrases offered by those in the room, she will guide the audience in creating an original poem in real time. No writing experience is needed — just a willingness to listen, respond, and add your voice. By the end, individual thoughts will become something shared: one poem, created from the voices in the room. Po’Jazz began in 1999 at the Hudson Valley Writers Center, for many years at The Cornelia Street Cafe, traveled to colleges and jazz clubs and is happily and creatively in residence at BDAC.