Cheeraz Gormon Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, May 25

Cheeraz Gormon will be one of the featured readers at the Chance Operations reading at the Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, May 25.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE.

Also featured will be Brett Underwood and Raphael Maurice.

Open-mic readers will step up to the mic throughout the evening.

Cheeraz Gormon is a North St. Louis native, life-long activist, internationally touring spoken word artist and published poet, documentary photographer turned award-winning advertising copywriter.

Her deep passion for humanity and issues affecting various communities provides the fuel for her dynamic spoken word performances, and in her first published book of poetry, In The Midst of Loving, a collection compiled and edited down over 14 years, Cheeraz opens her heart for the world to connect with her story.

Click here to listen to "Words" by Cheeraz Gormon; music by Brothers Lazaroff (Maurice Mo Egeston remix of "I Could Stay Here For the Rest My Life").

Beautiful Boy

In loving memory of a young man I never met... for Terrence Sands

Beautiful boy
No one told you
That this world would be so cruel
That the cold would brush against your soul
And chafe it
Exposing you to pain
That your mother dreamed of protecting you from
As she watched her belly expand
And that your father
Upon seeing that you were a reflection of him
A manchild
Perhaps swallowed a deep breath
Held it for as long as he could
In hopes that the empty space would make a path for you

I am a stranger to you
But not to the ways of this world
That you faced
Until your eyes drifted

Beautiful boy
You have become an ancestor way too soon
Your meeting with manhood
Too short

Beautiful boy
I hope you know that your skin was Black
But you were never soiled
As this world may have made you believe
Know that you were beautiful, boy

You are now free
To be what you may have always known you were

Beautiful boy
Fly
And be
Beautiful

-- Cheeraz Gormon