Shredding Rugs is a bold, tender, and unapologetic poetry collection that speaks directly to the hearts of Black and Brown girls who have been left unprotected, overlooked, and underestimated. Through vivid storytelling and visceral imagery, Lachrisa Grandberry invites readers to sit with truths that are often swept under the rug.

This book offers more than poems, it offers presence. Shredding Rugs offer a space for reflection, release, and reclamation. With each page, Grandberry holds space for those navigating generational trauma, identity, and healing on their own terms. The collection doesn't promise neat conclusions or perfect endings, it simply tells the truth. Loud, clear, and rooted in love.

Lachrisa Grandberry (she/her) is a Chicago-based actor, singer, writer, and storyteller whose work lives at the intersection of artistry, truth-telling, and healing. Her performance career spans stages across the Midwest, including Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and many seasons with Northern Sky Theater.

As a 2026 New Stages Residency Writer at Goodman Theatre, and the 2024 Dramatists Guild Foundation National Musical Theater Fellow, Lachrisa is also the Director of NOVA Programming at Northern Sky Theater, where she creates intentional spaces for writers to explore, challenge, and amplify their voices. In 2022, she was named one of Wisconsin’s 52 Most Influential Black Leaders.

Through her poetry collection Shredding Rugs and her theatrical work, Lachrisa uses storytelling as a tool for reflection, release, and transformation. Lachrisa believes that storytelling is a way to learn, unlearn, release, and heal. “I know that my stories are not my own,” she writes. “They belong to all of us.” She aims to continue inspiring and transforming the human mind through the power of storytelling in hopes that they hold the power to connect us, confront us, and ultimately, heal us.

Lachrisa will be joined by a board member of Youth Empowerment Performance Project (YEPP). 

This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books and YEPP. While all our events are free we encourage you to make a donation to support our collective programming work.