On April 29, 2026, the Unlikely Saints gathered at Bar Redux in New Orleans for a night of poetry, cupcakes, and fun! Poets Xander Bilyk, Penda Smith, Jennifer Polson Peterson, and Nordette Adams read. This video is the lightly-edited footage from the event.
Nordette N. Adams grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her poetry has appeared in Rattle Magazine, Quaint, About Place Journal, and Unlikely Stories Mark V. Her essays have been included or referenced in multiple books and journals such as the Social Issues in Literature series by Greenhaven Press, Sapphire’s Literary Breakthrough: Erotic Literacies, Feminist Pedagogies, and TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics, as well as on news websites such as Blogher, HuffPost, Slate, Vox, USA Today, and the Washington Post. She received her MA in English and her MFA in poetry from the University of New Orleans in 2016.
Jennifer Polson Peterson is the author of Degenerate Era of an Expanding Universe (Belle Point Press, 2026) and Must Resemble Leisure (Seven Kitchens Press, 2022). She serves as the 2024-28 Poet Laureate of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 2025 she was named a Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Colorado Review, Image, The Southern Humanities Review, Denver Quarterly, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. Her poems have been adapted for performance by choir and orchestra, featured on Poetry Daily, and nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches writing at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Penda Mbaye Z. Smith is a writer and educator living in New Orleans. She has received fellowship support from Cave Canem, Ragdale, The Kenyon Review, Hedgebrook, and Vona. You can find her work at Huffpost Personal Essay, Muzzle Magazine, and Obsidian Journal. Outside of writing, she loves hot yoga, rollerskating,watching sunsets over the Mississippi River, and being rudely awakened by her cat Prudence.
Xander Bilyk (he/she/they/them/whatchamacallit/candy bar/water/muppet) is a composer of poetry, fiction, music, and stand up comedy. He is currently pursuing an MFA degree in Creative Writing at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She previously lived in New Orleans where they produced events showcases queer and POC comedians and poets, The XX Comedy Show, and Queermedy, and was voted top five local queer performers in New Orleans Flame Magazine (he lost to Big Freedia.) Xander is published in Mad Hat Lit and Haute Dish.
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