Three poets will be featured at Lit Youngstown’s next First Wednesday Reader Series event.

Debbie Allen of Youngstown co-founded Poets Against Racism USA, headlined at Poets Against Racism Goes Global during the 2022 Nottingham (UK) Poetry Festival and has served as a Poets Reading the News associate poetry editor. Allen’s poems have appeared in The Watershed Journal and Tobeco. Much of her work responds to injustices.

Rochelle Hurt, a Youngstown native now living in Orlando, is the author of the poetry collections “The J Girls: A Reality Show,” “In Which I Play the Runaway” and “The Rusted City.” She teaches at the University of Central Florida.

Alynn Mahle of Cleveland is a memoir coach, poet, grandmother of eight and aspiring picture-book author. As a semi-retired English professor, Mahle spends her leisure time tending tomatoes, doing word puzzles and playing with her extraordinary cat Finnigan.

The reading starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Soap Gallery, 117 S. Champion St., Youngstown. It will be followed by an open mic co-hosted by Barbara Marie Minney. Admission is free.