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, September 21, 2025. Cameron Mitchell, a former poet laureate of Murfreesboro, will be back with us with his new book BREAKING THE BLOCK. Opening for Cam will be international poet Giselle Linder on her American tour. Read more about our features below.
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, baked goods, and artisan sandwiches from their grilled cheese station.
About the open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 poems or four minutes, which ever comes first 1 poem or 2 VERY short poems, 3 minutes max, for this show. Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site. Sign ups begin when doors open at 5:30. No early admittance.
We always 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. 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).
About our features
Cameron L. Mitchell is an international artist known for his transformative storytelling. He is the author of Breaking the Block: Building a path to write the story. Cameron is starring in the feature film “Dating My Past” that premiered internationally in Curacao and is out on streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and Apple TV. An award-winning actor, Cameron is known for his role as Corey Maxson in “Fences,” (Nashville Rep) which received the award for Best Contemporary Drama, and the role of Sunny in “Ghost” based on the book by Jason Reynolds at the Nashville Children’s Theater. As a speaker he has presented for: Disney, Legacy Foundation in Japan, Nafasi Art Space in Tanzania, Faith Temple in Germany, Vanderbilt University, PBS, and National Jazz Museum of Harlem, NY, among others. Honored as a past poet laureate of Murfreesboro, Cameron has been mentoring youth as a teaching artist for ten years and continues to make strides to inspire the next generation.
Giselle Linder is an Australian-born poet currently based in Paris, France. Her debut poetry collection, City Gothic, was released by England-based indie press Dark Thirty Poetry Publishing in 2023, and was followed by a second collection, titled Are You Having a Good Time Yet? in March 2025. She has been a featured guest poet at Wild Readings Brisbane, Paris Lit Up, Spoken Word Paris and the Circle Sessions Dublin, and her work has been included in various publications such as Querencia Press, Nowhere Girl Collective, Bread and Butter Magazine and Version Originale.
Challenge words
If you like, write a new piece to share that includes one, some, or ALL of these words, selected by our audience at our last gathering:
egregious | inconspicuous | dope | slither | enthusiastic | espresso | Mississippi | gallop | whisper | unending
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 events and news
- Don’t miss the September 11 Bloom Stage in Murfreesboro or the September 13 edition in historic Rugby, TN.
- September 14 – Writers Mingle at Dapper Owl (link coming soon)
Also check out the monthly Rutherford Arts Alliance lit-news blog by our team member Taffeta Chime!