Join Suban Nur Cooley, MSU faculty member and current Lansing Poet Laureate, for a poetry reading in the galleries of We Are This Land: Meditations on the Great American Experience. A community-minded scholar and storyteller, Dr. Cooley works to amplify the value and strength of Black diaspora knowledges and cultural practices through her writing, research, and teaching. She blends the rhetorics of identity and belonging, cultural and digital literacies, and Black feminist theory to help build understanding and broaden perspectives of how we define and value all forms of writing. Dr. Cooley is faculty at Michigan State University in African American and African Studies. As a Somali immigrant, her reading invites us to consider the shared histories and myths that shape American identity. A meet-and-greet will follow. 

Dr. Cooley’s performance kicks off The Poetry Gallery presented by the RCAH Center for Poetry, a series bringing poetry into conversation with art and the American experience.  

This event is offered in connection with We Are This Land: Meditations on the Great American Experiment. On view Aug. 22, 2026–Mar. 14, 2027, We Are This Land brings together artists who invite us to reflect on our history, consider our present, and imagine brighter futures.