Birds, LLC

Birds in Baltimore: New Books, Readings with Friends, and most importantly F**k Ice, Free Palestine, & Go Birds, LLC.

Come hang with the Birds & our authors and friends in Baltimore, we’ll have discounted books and a party and feel free to protest at AWP.

Get our 2 brand new books hot off the press: IMPERIAL ABHORRENCES / FOR PALESTINE a collaboration between poet & translator Ammiel Alcalay in New York and Palestinian artist and graphic designer Kholoud Hammad in Gaza.
And THE MIRROR IN OUR MUSIC, the long awaited debut poetry collection of poet Fred Joiner—a nearly 200-page, full-color do-si-do document chronicling Joiner’s decades of community building and collaboration with countless poets, musicians, artists, photographers, and ancestors.

Join us for 3 🔥 readings in Baltimore with our friends b l u s h @ & Illicit Zines on Thu, Mar 5 & Fri, Mar 6 & with Radiator Press Sat, Mar 7 with poetry readings followed by music and party all 3 nights 🎤❤️‍🔥🖤🪩🪽🤘💀

Thu, Mar 5, 8:30 to 10 PM
Venue: Ottobar, 2549 N Howard St, Baltimore, MD
Birds, LLC, b l u s h, & Illicit Zines present readings by
Sommer Browning
Fred Joiner
Christine Shan Shan Hou
Francesca Kritikos
Sampson Starkweather
Stephanie Cawley
Elisa Gabbert
Kai Ihns
Hunter Larson
Ian Fishman
Nick Hedtke

Fri, Mar 6, 9 PM to 10 PM
Current Space, 421 N Howard St, Baltimore
Birds, LLC, b l u s h, & Illicit Zines present readings by
Jessica Stark
Francesca Kritikos
Ryan Eckes
Cristine Shan Shan Hou
Stephanie Cawley
Nick Hedtke
Fred Joiner
Hunter Larson

Sat, Mar 7th, 7 to 9 PM
Old Major, 900 S Carey St, Baltimore, MD
Birds, LLC & Radiator Press present
Gina Myers
Cynthia Arrieu-King
Bianca Stone
Ryan Eckes
Stephanie Cawley
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Sampson Starkweather (reading for Ammiel Alcalay & Kholoud Hammad)
Cort Day
Stephen Potter
Alexa Smith
Nate Dixon

*Embroidery by poet & artist Madeleine Barnes for Sampson, the Birds and the people.

🤘🪩❤️‍🔥🪽🖤🌹🫀🦅🕊️🌻🌖🎤💎🔮💣🩸📖☮️💀🪡🧵

Birds, LLC is proud to make Fred L. Joiner’s much-awaited debut poetry collection, The Mirror in Our Music, available for pre-order. https://www.birdsllc.com/catalog/the-mirror-in-our-music

The Mirror in Our Music is a nearly 200-page, full-color do-si-do document chronicling Joiner’s decades of community building and collaboration with countless poets, musicians, artists, photographers, and ancestors.

“When considering Fred Joiner’s nimble reflections and sharply observed personal and political nuances, ruminations of which make up a kind of aesthetic/esthetic inner life, I am reminded of the ten-year span of letters between Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray in Trading Twelves, in which they riff and wax poetic on life, literature, travel, family, philosophy, politics, art, aesthetics, music, racism, identity, and such, in a sense a running dialogue reminiscent of the exchange between two jazz musicians in a jam session, improvising twelve bars of music around the same musical idea—trading twelves. In this regard, what Joiner manages in The Mirror in Our Music is a triad: an exchange between the Poem and the Music and Art.

Joiner could’ve put out a collection of poetry decades ago. But he was ‘woodshedding,’ as he likes to say. He was in fact honing his skills because he has that much respect for poetry—and the music! This is sacred ground to him. Holy water and altar. It is about revering ancestors and the power of the word and a higher being. And thus, here we are.”
— from Tony Medina’s Introduction

Cover art by Amadou Sanogo
Cover design by Hobbes Ginsberg
Interior art by Mervyn Smyth, Gene Davis, Abdoulaye Konate, Ewané Nja Kwa

Purchase the book and read more about the book here: https://www.birdsllc.com/catalog/the-mirror-in-our-music

Birds, LLC is proud to make Fred L. Joiner’s much-awaited debut poetry collection, The Mirror in Our Music, available for pre-order.

The Mirror in Our Music is a nearly 200-page, full-color do-si-do document chronicling Joiner’s decades of community building and collaboration with countless poets, musicians, artists, photographers, and ancestors.

“When considering Fred Joiner’s .joiner.poet nimble reflections and sharply observed personal and political nuances, ruminations of which make up a kind of aesthetic/esthetic inner life, I am reminded of the ten-year span of letters between Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray in Trading Twelves, in which they riff and wax poetic on life, literature, travel, family, philosophy, politics, art, aesthetics, music, racism, identity, and such, in a sense a running dialogue reminiscent of the exchange between two jazz musicians in a jam session, improvising twelve bars of music around the same musical idea—trading twelves. In this regard, what Joiner manages in The Mirror in Our Music is a triad: an exchange between the Poem and the Music and Art.

Joiner could’ve put out a collection of poetry decades ago. But he was ‘woodshedding,’ as he likes to say. He was in fact honing his skills because he has that much respect for poetry—and the music! This is sacred ground to him. Holy water and altar. It is about revering ancestors and the power of the word and a higher being. And thus, here we are.”
— from Tony Medina’s Introduction

Cover art by Amadou Sanogo .sanogo.7
Cover design by Hobbes Ginsberg
Interior art by Mervyn Smyth, Gene Davis, Abdoulaye Konate, Ewané Nja Kwa

Link to pre-order and more info about the book in our bio or at birdsllc.com