Poetry in the Boro is a monthly open mic and featured reading series hosted in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Since our beginnings in 2016, the mission of PitB is to bring poetry to the community and to offer a place for our community’s creative, unique voices. Our events are free and open to the public, thanks in part to our sponsor MTSU Write, a non-degree creative writing program that hosts local events, facilitates writing groups, and offers from-home mentoring to writers of all genres across the nation.
We’re currently hosted at Dapper Owl Coffee Pub & Bakery and enjoy frequent collaborations with the Rutherford Arts Alliance and the Bloom Stage at the Walnut House. Additional past and on-going partners include Murfreesboro Little Theatre, the venues at Oaklands Mansion, MTSU Honors College, Cedar Glade Brews, Cultivate Coworking, and Gallagher Unplugged, the former venue at Gallagher Guitar.
Check out this article in the Murfreesboro Post about our first anniversary and our beginnings.
Our Events
Our events are held monthly, often on Sunday evenings. However, our days of the week vary, especially when we are partnering with other organizations and groups. Check our Upcoming Events page or our Facebook or Instagram feeds for details.
The pics above are from our December 2023 event at the Dapper Owl.
Poets from around the world joined our Zooms during the pandemic. We plan to continue having an occasional Zoom in order to connect with our far-flung friends!
Our Goals
The goals of Poetry in the Boro are to:
- Provide a welcoming and supportive environment for expression of all community voices in poetry, spoken word and short-short prose
- Attract a diverse group of participants who live, work or study in the Murfreesboro area
- Better connect the writing communities of the Boro and MTSU
- Demonstrate and appreciate well-developed voices through featured readers who will often (but may not exclusively) have local ties
- Build an outlet for better connection between poets, writers, and other artists, with community synergy and future collaborations in mind
- Have fun!
Our Team
Poetry in the Boro was founded by Murfreesboro poet Kory Wells with fellow poets Allison Boyd Justus and Denise Wilson. The current team includes Kory Wells, Nick Bush, Bliss Button-Hale, Taffeta Chime, Gregory Lannom, Bryanna Licciardi, Brandon Long. We occasionally call long-distance on longtime team member Amie Whittemore.
Join us at an event soon!