Join us to listen to some poetry—or share some writing of your own—at Poetry in the Boro at Dapper Owl on Sunday evening, February 23, 2025. Our features will be two poets who have grown up with us, Bliss Button-Hale and Jai Wilson. Bliss and Jai started coming to our events more than seven years ago, when they were 16. Learn more about them below.
In celebration of their reading, we’re especially inviting Gen Z poets to participate at the open mic! Whether you’re one of our regulars or new to our events, you’ll be welcome. Parents are also welcome! Older gens, don’t worry–we expect to we’ll have time for all poets at the mic.
The features will be at 6:00, with open mic to follow. Drip coffee and light nibbles 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, chips, and baked goods.
About the open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 SHORT poems or four minutes, whichever comes first. (Please be aware that if we have a lot of sign-ups, we may ask that you read only 1 poem.) Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site.
We always ask that readers be prepared to keep their pieces “PG-13” depending on our venue and audience, which sometimes includes younger people.
About the venue and parking
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. Overflow parking is on the Arnold Lane side of the building – pull in perpendicular to the building to allow more cars to fit (careful of the AC unit!) or park on the side of road down Arnold Lane (please don’t block any driveways).
PLEASE NOTE OUR DOORS OPEN POLICY:For safety reasons while we set up, only team members or volunteers specifically recruited to help will be allowed in before 5:30 PM. Thank you for your understanding.
About our features
Bliss Button-Hale is a multidisciplinary artist. She graduated from Circadium School of Contemporary Circus, specializing in Dance-Acrobatics and Show-Creation. As a passionate writer and filmmaker, Bliss strives to use art and performance to support social, environmental, and animal activism. In addition to performing and coaching, she also produces a YouTube channel called CircusBliss, where she posts circus/performing arts education and lifestyle content. When she isn’t creating, you can find her snuggled up with her gray cat, Literature.
Jai Wilson is a spoken word poet and multigenre writer from Nashville. They have been a featured guest at multiple poetry events and have had work published in local collections. Currently, they are focused on script writing in short films and television. Jai’s other interests include political activism and rugby. Their favorite color is purple and they love their friends very, very much.
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:
quickfire | resist | croquet | truth | desire | potato | love | shroud | embrace | thagomizer
We rely on your donations
ADMISSION IS FREE. A DONATION of $5 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.
For more local lit news
Check out the monthly Rutherford Arts Alliance lit-news blog by our team member Taffeta Chime!