Bestselling poet Coleman Barks reads Rumi with musical accompaniment by Grammy Award-winners Paul Winter and Glen Velez.

Poet Laureates Lisa Starr and Marjory Wentworth will also read.

NEW HAVEN – Chabaso Bakery's poetry month celebration this year features musicians Paul Winter and Glen Velez accompanying Coleman Barks as he reads his translations of Rumi, on the poet’s 800^th birthday. The event, held at Yale University Theatre on Sunday, April 27, 4-6 p.m., is a charity fundraiser for Connecticut Food Bank. Nine other poetry events will be held at Atticus Bookstore Café throughout April.

Over 30 years, Barks has published 19 books of Rumi translations, which have sold more than three-quarters of a million copies. Winter, a four-time Grammy Award winner, will play soprano saxophone, and Velez, a three-time Grammy winner, will play percussion. Also reading will be Rhode Island Poet Laureate Lisa Starr and South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth.

The event caps a month-long celebration of poetry at Atticus. The downtown bookstore will continue its tradition of giving a free loaf of Chabaso bread to anyone willing to read a poem aloud at the café Fridays during National Poetry Month. The calendar also includes two children’s poetry readings, an “open mic” for foreign language poetry, and a slam competition by the Connecticut Youth Poetry Slam Team, which also performed at Atticus last year.