Cruel April 2026

Wednesday, April 8, 2026 | 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Syracuse University Art Museum

Point of Contact’s Cruel April Poetry Series returns to the SU Art Museum for an evening of powerful readings by Urayoán Noel and Stephen Kuusisto.

The 2026 program unfolds against the backdrop of the museum’s spring exhibition in connection with the Wynn Newhouse Awards, featuring eleven nationally recognized artists with disabilities. The exhibition explores how artists navigate the art world—and the world at large—on their own terms, expanding our understanding of creativity through perspectives shaped by body, mind, culture, and history.

In this spirit, Cruel April 2026 celebrates poets who challenge convention and expand the boundaries of artistic expression.

• Urayoán Noel, a writer, translator, and performer from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, engages themes of neurodivergence, queerness, and displacement in his forthcoming work Neural Sea. His bilingual practice and cross-disciplinary performances bridge language and identity through experimentation and activism.

• Stephen Kuusisto, a poet and essayist who has been blind since birth, is known for illuminating the world through sound, intuition, and poetic vision. His collections Only Bread, Only Light and Letters to Borges affirm that perception transcends sight, inviting readers to encounter beauty through other senses.

Together, their readings offer an extraordinary dialogue on visibility, belonging, and creative freedom—echoing the exhibition’s central message that disability is not a limitation but a vital source of perspective, resistance, and innovation.

Cruel April is presented annually with support from Syracuse University and the New York State Council on the Arts.