The VOICES Reading Series at St. Mary’s College of Maryland will feature the multi-talented Shirlette Ammons, a poet, writer, musician, and director of an arts program for children. The event will be held at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in Daugherty-Palmer Commons. It is free and open to the public.

Ammons has published two collections of poetry this decade, Matching Skin and Stumphole Aunthology of Backwoods Blood. She is also a vocalist songwriter for hip-hop rock band Mosadi Music. Her poetry and essays have appeared in several publications, including The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and What Your Mama Never Told You: True Stories about Love and Sex. She was a Cave Canem fellow and also has received the Kathryn H. Wallace Award for Artists in Community Service.

St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best public liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. More than 2,000 students attend the college, nestled on the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland.