*VMFA “First Fridays” Welcomes Back VCU Poets Please come!!!*

VMFA will host the first event in the new First Fridays performing arts
series on Friday, September 3 with poetry readings from four poets from VCU.

The readings will be held in the museum’s Atrium from 6-8 PM. Admission to each event is free and open to the public. Take advantage of the late Friday evening hours, and view the works of art in the galleries, browse the gift shop or enjoy the casual atmosphere, food and beverages offered in the Best Café before or after the performances

*First Fridays, September 3*
*Poets* (introduced by Shann Palmer)

6:00-6:25 pm Avery Beckendorf
6:30-6:55 Tarfia Faizullah
7:00-7:25 Randy Marshall
7:30-8:00 Cynthia Grier Lotze

*Avery Beckendorf *is a third-year MFA student in poetry at VCU. She earned a BA in creative writing and journalism from the University of Central Florida in 2006. She previously worked as editor of the *Cypress Dome*, a student literary magazine at UCF, and her poetry and fiction have appeared in The *Susquehanna Review* and *Takedown.*
*Cynthia Grier Lotze* earned her MFA in poetry from VCU in 2006. She has taught Literature and Writing at VCU and at the University of Mary Washington and teaches in the English Department at St. Catherine’s School. She is at work on a book-length poem entitled *Baedeker for Comets* and her
shorter poems can be found or are forthcoming in publications like *Harpur Palate, Babel Fruit*, *Opium, Versal* and *Makeout Creek*.
*Randy Marshall* received his MFA in poetry from VCU. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in *Richmond Arts Magazine, GSU Review, Cream City Review *and *Blackbird*. Selections of his poetry were named as finalists in the Frank O’Hara Chapbook Competitions. He currently serves as Associate Literary Editor of *Blackbird: an online journal of literature and he arts.*

*Tarfia Faizullah* received her MFA in poetry from VCU. She is a former associate editor of Blackbird: an online journal of literature and the arts. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, The Southern Review, Ploughshares, Cimarron Review, Green Mountains Review, Poetry Daily and elsewhere. She was a 2006-07 AWP Intro Journals Award winner, a 2008-09 winner of the Catherine and Joan Byrne Poetry Prize, and the 2009 winner of Ploughshares’ Cohen Award