Poetry in the Boro offers monthly featured poets, open mic

Aug 21, 2018 at 08:00 am by KoryWells

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Like music, there's some kind of poetry for everybody.

Now entering its third year, Poetry in the Boro is a monthly event where all kinds of poetry and poets are welcome. The evening usually starts with two featured poets from the Middle Tennessee area or beyond.

After a short break, an hour of open mic follows. The group regularly hears everything from sonnets to spoken word.

Poetry in the Boro has its roots in the Boro Art Crawl when a group of poets discovered their short readings garnered high interest. 

A few months later, one of those poets, Kory Wells, recruited fellow poets Allison Boyd Justus and Denise Wilson to launch the reading series.

Today, area poets Nick Bush, Gregory Lannom, Bryanna Licciardi, Amie Whittemore and others help Wells book, promote, and host the event. MTSU Write, a non-degreed, from-home mentorship program in creative writing, sponsors the series.

After outgrowing the space of generous local businesses like The Green Dragon and Let's Make Wine, Poetry in the Boro found a home at Murfreesboro Little Theatre. The event is held the second Sunday evening of most months; however, the group occasionally meets at different times and locations.

The August Poetry in the Boro featured poets Catherine Moore of Nashville and Gary McDowell, who's recently moved to Murfreesboro. Moore read from her new book Ulla! Ulla! (Main Street Rag), and McDowell read work from his book Mysteries in a World That Thinks There Are None (Burnside Review Books). 

The next Poetry in the Boro will be Sunday evening, September 23, at Murfreesboro Little Theatre. Featured poets will be Adrian Blevins of Maine and Travis Mossotti of Missouri. The friends are on tour to promote their newest books, Blevins' Appalachians Run Amok, winner of the Wilder Series Book Prize, and Mossotti's Narcissus Americana, winner of the 2018 Miller Williams Prize.

See more Poetry in the Boro news and event details on Facebook.