Join H&H on Tuesday, April 1st at 6pm at Taller Puertorriqueño for a collaborative celebration and conversation with a panel of the authors & illustrators from the 2023-2024 Riverwards Chapbook Series!
The Riverwards Chapbook Series is our unique collaborative exhibition and publishing pilot. A committee of mentors nominated over 35 writers and artists with connections to the River Wards, and of those nominated 20 were selected to read and showcase the Riverwards Arts & Letters Salon Series hosted at H&H Books over the course of 2023-2024. The goal of this interdisciplinary Salon series was to create a space where local artists and writers could gain access to one another’s work and discover potential collaborators in their own corner of Philadelphia (specifically, the River Wards neighborhoods of Kensington, Fishtown, Port Richmond, and Olde Richmond). After each Salon, the artists and writers participating in the series were invited to consider which of the works on display felt most aligned with their own; in essence, did any feel enough visual-verbal alchemy to want to partner on a chapbook publication?
At the end of the series, the answer was a resounding yes for the three final pairings formed after committee members considered all Salon participants’ requests to collaborate. This inaugural run of the Riverwards Chapbooks Series features collaborations between artist Manuela Guillén and poet Pthalo, artist Nora E Luks and poet Mary Zhou, and artist Rushawn Stanley, or "Scum Lizard", and poet Gabriel Ramirez.
H&H is grateful for series sponsorship provided by the Penn Treaty Special Services District and PECO Powering the Arts.
About the Authors and Illustrations
Mary Zhou is a poet and dancer based in Philadelphia. They have been supported by Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, VONA/Voices, and Brooklyn Poets. Their work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and is published in The Rumpus, Foglifter, and ANMLY.
Nora E Luks is an artist living and working in Philadelphia, PA. She creates prints, illustrations, comics, and sculpture.
Gabriel Ramirez, author of the chapbook IF PIT BULLS HAD A GOD IT’D BE A PIT BULL (The Head & The Hand Press) and the children’s book We’re Community, is a Queer Afro-Caribbean writer, performer and educator. A 2023 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit Journal and the 2024-2025 CantoMundo Poetry Coalition Fellow. Gabriel has received fellowships from the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, The Conversation Literary Arts Festival, CantoMundo, Miami Book Fair, a graduate fellow at The Watering Hole, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. Gabriel has performed on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre, United Nations, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theatre, The National Museum of Romanian Literature, and other venues & universities around the nation. Gabriel was featured in Huffington Post, VIBE Magazine, Blavity, Upworthy, The Flama, and Remezcla. You can find their work in various spaces, including YouTube, and in publications like Poetry Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Adroit Journal, Split This Rock’s The Quarry, BOMB, and others as well as Bettering American Poetry Anthology (Bettering Books 2017) What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press 2019), The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Press 2020), and Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (Library of America 2024). Learn more about Gabriel Ramirez @RamirezPoet and RamirezPoet.com.
Rushawn Videl-Gevonte Stanley, or ‘Scum Lizard,’ is an American illustrator and muralist. Stanley’s work is known for its bright, highly saturated color palettes and cartoonish style paired with cerebral content and dark themes.
Pthalo is a poet and artist who uses their craft to confront the tension between his queer identity and the rigid expectations of Christianity. Growing up in an environment where these parts of her were at odds, their work has become a space where she can reclaim and assert who he is, challenging the narratives that seek to erase or diminish LGBTQ lives. Their poetry is often intense and confrontational, wrestling with themes of divine rejection, grace, and the struggle for acceptance. Through his art, they strive to create a world where their identity is not only visible but celebrated—a place where others like her can find solace and strength. Their work is both a protest and a prayer, a way to navigate the complexities of faith, identity, and belonging.
Manuela Guillén is a passionate Philadelphia-based artist, merging her Cuban and Salvadorian heritage into her work as a painter, muralist, and digital illustrator. Her art, inspired by plants, tropical colors, and her upbringing, focuses on promoting art education and addressing sociopolitical and environmental issues. Collaborating with organizations globally, her murals adorn spaces in the U.S. and Mexico. As an Art teacher, she aims to inspire creativity and bring communities together through the power of art.