The Mundane, the Profane, and Everything in Between: An Evening of Poetry with Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount

On February 24^th, 2026, the University of Detroit Mercy’s English department welcomed local poets Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount. Brittany Rogers is an artist, educator, and lifelong Detroiter who strives for her poems to be bold and audacious, as well as to subvert heteronormative and patriarchal norms. Tommye Blount is a poet who explores the paradoxical intersections of life and, like Rogers, is unafraid to take creative risks in his work. Together, these poets write about their experiences as Black people, as Queer people, and as Queer Black people, ultimately reflecting on the shared human experiences that connect us all.

The evening started with two student poets, sophomore Kenyon Lofton (he/him) and freshman Amaya Echols (they/them). Their work set the tone for the night as they shared poems with themes of memory, identity, and intersectionality. After, Rogers and Blount took the stage to share pieces that explored identity, memory and the complexity of the human experience.

Rogers’s work ties together memory, truth and self-discovery to create poems drenched in vivid imagery and evocative emotion, such as in the following lines from her forthcoming piece “Theory on Coming Out”: “my confession tossed out like old clothes”; “I lied for her, I lied for her, and all those years she let me”; and “my reflections full of imagination where memory should be.”

Blount’s work showcases the unconventional intersections that can occur when you write with fearless honesty. A few of my favorite lines from the night came from his poem “Eulogy for Whitney Houston,” in which he writes: “a hopping of oneself to another” and “nothing can hold you now, no mirror, no mother, not even the box we left you in.” I also enjoyed his forthcoming poem “Bandmaster.” Here, he writes: “a song is an attempt to chase the outlaws of beauty” and “weeping is a form of song.”

Both featured poets touched on themes of identity and belonging. They shared poems about famous figures such as Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston (Blount), not-so-famous people such as their mother (Rogers), places such as the Detroit Public Library (Rogers), and even the importance of a polyester suit (Blount). They both shared ekphrastic poems, as well as poems about their partners. Together, Rogers and Blount’s work proves how poetry can highlight that we are not as different as we may seem.

In short, both Brittany Rogers and Tommye Blount wrote about the mundane, the profane, and everything in between. They wrote about what makes them human and what makes us human in a way that only a poet can capture. The reading left me in an amazed, speechless state, and I’m sure I was not the only one affected so powerfully. Detroit Mercy’s Poet-in-Residence Stacy Gnall started the night by asking “When else and where else do poets get the praise they deserve?” I hope this article delivers them their due praise.