In the second of two programs hosted by BAMPFA for the Townsend Center’s 2023–24 Avenali Lecture, Ocean Vuong presents a poetry reading focusing on Time Is a Mother. In this latest poetry collection, he searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother’s death and—in concert with the themes of his novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous—contends with loss and the meaning of family. Vuong’s previous poetry collection is the award-winning Night Sky with Exit Wounds.