Poetry in the Boro is bringing you two community poetry events in July!
Sunday evening, July 14
Reading and open mic
Join us to listen to some poetry—or share some writing of your own—at Poetry in the Boro at Dapper Owl coffee pub on Sunday evening, July 14. Our feature will be Henry Jones, the poet laureate of Hendersonville, TN and recently elected president of the National Black Poet Laureate Society. Read more about Henry below.
This event is free and open to the public. Donations are encouraged to help with our expenses. Doors open at 5:30 pm and the feature will be at 6:00, with open mic to follow.
Drip coffee and light snacks will be available at no charge. We hope that you’ll order from Dapper Owl’s tasty menu to help make this a winning collaboration for all of us! Their menu includes coffee, tea, beer, cider, and baked goods.
More about our open mic below.
Sunday afternoon, July 21
Discussion of the poetry book Excuse Me As I Kiss the Sky by Rudy Francisco
Poetry in the Boro team member Nick Bush will be leading a community discussion of Rudy Francisco’s poetry collection Excuse Me As I Kiss the Sky from Button Poetry (also available from your favorite bookseller). Because Francisco is a well-known and award-winning spoken word poet who also publishes, we thought he was a good choice for the wide range of styles that our community encompasses. Thanks to the Bloom Stage for partnering with us on this event!
Join us at the Technology Engagement Center, 306 Minerva Drive in Murfreesboro.
Sunday, July 21
2:30 PM Refreshments
3:00 PM Discussion
After about an hour of discussion, we’ll take a final half hour for participants to share, if desired, poems they’ve written in response to any poem in Francisco’s book.
If you can’t afford to purchase a copy–or find the book at the library–please let us know at poetryintheboro@gmail.com. We can help!
Here’s another book discussion that may be of interest:
On behalf of MTSU Write, PitB founder Kory Wells will be leading a discussion of The Way of the Fearless Writer by Beth Kempton on Wednesday evening, July 10. Learn more and register here
More about our feature Henry Jones
Henry L. Jones is a multi-disciplinary artist who’s an award-winning poet, artist, playwright and
performance artist as well as an activist. Honors include: first Poet Laureate of Hendersonville, TN;
Academy of American Poets listed poet; National Black Poet Laureate Society’s president; Art Wire
Fellow of The Porch and OZ Arts Nashville; Converge Fellow of Converge Arts’ Fort Negley Master
Plan; Arts Fellow of Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s Tennessee at the Millennium; Arts Equity
Nashville’s Mutual Aid Society and SALT Weekly for poetry documentary film project and other awards.
Also, he’s won entrance into visiting writers and artists programs. Jones has recited, lectured and
published about poetry and the arts. His work appears in anthologies, films, journals and magazine.
Recently, his poetry appeared in In the Fullness of the Word: An Anthology of Black American Poet
Laureates (5 th Woman Books) and American Graveyard, A Call to End Gun Violence (Read or Green
Books). An author of five books, his next book is Black Skillet Blues: Poetry without Cornbread
(Beatlick Press) which is due in 2024. Currently, he’s working on two films, some art exhibits, two
anthologies and a children’s book. Jones is a graduate of Fisk University. He and his wife have three
children.
More about our reading and open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 poems or four minutes, whichever comes first. Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site. If we have a large turnout, we may ask you to limit yourself to one poem. We appreciate you helping us hear from many voices!
We also ask that readers be prepared to keep their pieces “PG-13” depending on our venue and audience, which sometimes includes younger people.
The Dapper Owl coffee pub is located at 2412 East Main St. just past its intersection with Rutherford Blvd., on the east side of the MTSU campus. Doors open for mingling and refreshments at 5:30 PM. (Please note: doors do not open before 5:30–the staff will be doing a soft close to their regular day and preparing to reopen just for us.)
The feature will be at 6:00, with open mic to follow. Drip coffee and light snacks will be available at no charge. However, we hope that you’ll order from Dapper Owl’s tasty menu to help make this a winning collaboration for all of us! Their menu includes coffee, tea, beer, cider, and baked goods. We’ll have an update on any special menu offerings closer to the event date.
Challenge words
Here are our challenge words chosen by our community at our last gathering. If you like, write a new piece to share that includes one, some, or ALL of these words:
pride | Worcestershire | dirt | unrequited | gallop | cultivate | cook | marsupial | bereft | Constantinople
Your donations are appreciated
ADMISSION TO THESE EVENTS IS FREE. A DONATION of $5 or more is appreciated to help us offset our costs. You can donate using PayPal at paypal.me/poetryintheboro. We also accept donations on site.
Poetry in the Boro thanks MTSU Write and the Rutherford Arts Alliance for their on-going partnerships and support.
