Benin Lemus

Shaking Hands: Crossing the Chasm, Sunday, May 7 at 5:00pm, Mt. View Mausoleum

Benin Lemus (she|her) is a poet and an educator based in South Los Angeles. She earned her B.A. in English from Bennett College in North Carolina and an MFA in Film and Television Production from the University of Southern California. Her debut poetry collection, Dreaming in Mourning (November 2022), is published by World Stage Press. She is a 2022 Inaugural Workshop Fellow with Obsidian Magazine’s O|Sessions: Black Listening–A Performance Master Class and a 2022 Honorable Mention in the Furious Flower Poetry Center’s annual poetry competition with Tim Seibles as the Finalist Judge. Her work is published online and in print, most recently in TORCH Literary Arts and A Gathering of Tribes Magazine, edited by Quincy Troupe. She has performed at venues like the Boca de Oro Arts Festival in Santa Ana, the Free Verse Poetry Festival in Charleston, S.C., and the World Stage Performance Gallery, to name a few. www.beninlemus.com.

Books That Make a Difference: Blessing the Boats – Lucille Clifton, Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison, The Places That Scare You – Pema Chodron, The Pearl by John Steinbeck, The Mis-Education of the Negro– Carter G. Woodson, Pet Sematary – Stephen King.