past events

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the AUGUST 5 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

*LIVE PORTRAITS

*LIVE DJ SETS by WXNA

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN

4PM-Sunset 

Free 

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer.

This generative writing session will feature unique prompts to respond to and engage with. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt - the prompts exist to be constructive, so feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, obliterate that writer's block, reorient your thinking process through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym!

Time provided at the end of the event if anyone would like to share something composed during the session.

Journals + Pens provided, or bring your own notebook, journal, laptop, sketchpad, etc.

SESSION LEADER:   C.B. Brooks

*7PM
*This event is graciously hosted by COOP GALLERY at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

*PASTRIES provided by DOZEN BAKERY
*This event is absolutely FREE W/ $5 SUGGESTED DONATION ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

For the JULY 1 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant, FNPL hosts a very special Mayoral Candidates Open Mic! Don't miss Nashville Vice Mayoral, Mayoral, and local District 17 Candidates sharing their favorite (and their own!?) poems ahead of the August 3 General Election(!)

MAYORAL CANDIDATES:

Vivian Wilhoite

Stephanie Johnson

Sharon Hurt

Freddie O'Connell

Matt Wiltshire

Alice Rolli

Heidi Campbell

Jeff Yarbro

Jim Gingrich

VICE MAYORAL CANDIDATES:

Angie Henderson

Jim Shulman

DISTRICT 17 CANDIDATES:

Teaka Jackson

Terry Vo

Tonya Esquibel

*Open Mic starts at 7PM*

*Early Voting July 14-29*

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN

FREE

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer.

This generative writing session will feature unique prompts to respond to and engage with. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt - the prompts exist to be constructive, so feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, obliterate that writer's block, reorient your thinking process through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym!

Time provided at the end of the event if anyone would like to share something composed during the session.

Journals + Pens provided, or bring your own notebook, journal, laptop, sketchpad, etc.

SESSION LEADER: Phoebe Farrell-Sherman

*7PM
*This event is graciously hosted by COOP GALLERY at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

*PASTRIES provided by DOZEN BAKERY
*This event is absolutely FREE W/ $5 SUGGESTED DONATION ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the JUNE 3 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

*LIVE DJs

*LIVE PORTRAITS

*BEER by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN

4PM-SunsetFreeOutdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

 A night of poetry, comedy and soft power with Derrick Brown & Amber Tamblyn. Veteran authors and performers Derrick C. Brown and Amber Tamblyn are reuniting this spring for a limited run of their infamous literary performance show, which they toured nationally between 2008-2015 via motorycle.

PRETEND IT’S A BOAT combines sharply funny and heart-wrenching poetry, comedy, and wild interactions with the audience to create a truly inspired, one-of-a-kind show. 

Brown and Tamblyn have toured together for two decades, turning their signature style of darkly humorous and heart-jolting poetry and verse into provocative, energized and unpredictable performances for the stage. Brown and Tamblyn will be touring between May 16th – 25th all around the South, Midwest, and North East, traveling by motorcycle as they have done in previous years. They will be cold and could use your warmth.

PLUS:
Spoken Word by Minton Sparks (with special guest Jerry Oliver)

Spoken Word by simp goddess

Comedy by Michael Hampton



Amber Tamblyn is an Emmy, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominated actress, writer, and director, and the author of seven books across genres, including the most recent Amazon #1 Best Seller, the critically acclaimed, Listening in the Dark; Reclaiming the Power of Women’s Intuition. Tamblyn is a contributing writer for The New York Times and The Cut on issues pertaining to gender inequality and women's rage. Shereviews books of poetry by women for Bust Magazine, was a founding member of the Times Up movement, and currently runs the popular Substack newsletter, Listening in the Dark: A Place to be Heard. She lives in New York.

Derrick C. Brown is an accomplished poet, librettist, screenplay writer, and comedian who has toured the world over opening for rock bands and comedians alike, including Eugene Mirman, David Cross, and The Cold War Kids. He is the founder of Write Blood Publishing, one of the most important and successful indie publishing houses in the country. Brown is the author of 10 books, including the recently released LOVE ENDS IN A TANDEM KAYAK. He is currently consulting and writing for film, as well as has an album in the works for Sub Pop and Pretty Good Friends. He lives in Los Angeles.


TUESDAY, 5/16

8PM

FREE $10 SUGGESTED DONATION*LIMITED OCCUPANCY*
BEER by Jackalope Brewing Co.DONATIONS ENCOURAGED!

Hosted by COOP GALLERY 

at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.) 

*SOUND + SPECIAL THANKS to Queen Ave. Collective

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the MAY 6 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

*Live DJ Sets by WXNA

*Drinks by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

3-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

A Poetry Fest + Fundraiser to celebrate our home in the Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood + all things literary in Nashville (!) Benefitting the Free Nashville Poetry Library - We're asking for your dough for the 1st time (!)

Special Raffle Packages, Poetry Activities, And An Outdoor Lit Market featuring: Bookstore Pop-Ups, Small Press Publishing + DIY Poetry, Lit Orgs + Non-Profits, Local Poets, Book Artists, Screenprinting, Risography, Design, Illustration, Local Zines, Comics, Text Art, & More (!)

Outdoor Lit Market: 2PM-Sunset

Performances: 3PM

PERFORMANCES BY:

*Special Book Art Stage Area Zone by Paul Collins
*Special DJ Set by KAWAMALA

-C.I. Aki

-J. Joseph Kane

-Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay

-Klyd Watkins

-Dan Hoy

-Tyler Friend

Henry L. Jones

Amy Hoskins

Prodigal Poets - Brandon Long, AW Page

-Lydia Yousief

-Sawmill Poetry Series - Cathy Hollister, Mari Ramler

-Kat Marsh

-Richard Perkins

-Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum

-Aaron Joel Lain

ORGS + ARTISTS:

-Girls Write Nashville

-The Porch Writers' Collective

-Novelette Booksellers

-April Gloaming Press

-Waxing & Waning Journal

-Eulalia Books

-hot mess house

-Random Sample

-Hey! Young Writer

-Risology Club

-Nashville Public Library

-Wakeup Comics

-Patrick Vincent, Lauren Kinney

-Low Culture Committee

-Jerpoet

-Joseph Christy, Matt Christy

-Malaka Gharib

-Austin Reavis

-GHOSTPRINT

-Tom Shaw

-Aaron Azi Felder

-Art by Dawn

-Creatif Moi

-Trance Furnace

-Lily Rex

-Courtney Adair Johnson

-Espy Kremer

-William Lipchik & William Garrett Lee

FOOD:

-Dicey's Pizza Tavern (V + GF options)

DRINKS:
-Beer by Jackalope Brewing Co. 

-Coffee by Americano Lounge

ACTIVITIES:

-Live Typewriter Poems by MIKAYLA ELIAS

-Poetry Face Painting by Beck King

-'Bad' Portraits by DAKOTA JERNIGAN

(Get the trifecta: get a personalized poem, select your words from that poem, get a portrait with that word your face!)

-Magnetic Poetry Contest by FNPL

-Comics Drawing by Malaka Gharib

*RAFFLE-GIVEAWAY:

-Citizen - Contributions From Nashville's Lit Community

-Tour de Wedgewood-Houston - Contributions From Wedgewood-Houston Orgs + Businesses

+ Giveaways Graciously Donated By Friends of FNPL

*$5 Raffle Ticket, No Limit

SUNDAY, 4/30 

FREE

$5 SUGGESTED DONATION

2PM-SUNSET

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the APRIL 1 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

*Live DJ Sets by WXNA

*Food by THE GOLDEN PLANT

*Drinks by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

'Bad' Portraits by DAKOTA JERNIGAN

3-7pm (sunset)

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

FNPL is partnering with Abortion Care Tennessee and a multitude of poets and artists to raise funds for and awareness of reproductive rights in middle-TN: Live poetry performances, local artists + makers (all donating to Abortion Care Tennessee), reproductive rights organizations + resources, DJ sets, food, and drinks. We'll be taking donations all day long. Support the cause by supporting local artists, hear from local poets, connect with reproductive rights orgs + resources.

POETS:

Lily Someson
Ciona Rouse
Maggie Lee
Meg Wade
Ashley Roth
Kathy Eckerd
Pepper
Wisdom Way 

ARTISTS-MAKERS:

 -Low Culture Committee
ArtbyMarteja
Sarah Bogdal Prints

Ave 724

APCOMFORT
Destiney Hett
Pepper & Pen

Hey! Young Writer
Wise Butter
SALT Weekly
April Gloaming Press
Waxing & Waning Journal
Richard Isaac Griggs
Kara Tyler

Andie Peach

simp goddess

FOOD:

Lucky Vegan

DRINKS:

Jackalope Brewing Co.

DJ: 

DJ TOMBOYBARBIE

HOST:

Shawn Reilly

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages.

2pm-7pm (sunset)

$5 Suggested Donation

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the MARCH 4 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

2-6pm (sunset)

Free

*Live DJ Sets by WXNA

*Food by KRAZY K'S HOT DOGS

*Drinks by BETTER THAN BOOZE

'Bad' Portraits by DAKOTA JERNIGAN

*Live Typewriter Poems by MIKAYLA ELIAS

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer.

 
This generative writing session features unique prompts to respond to. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt - the prompts exist to be constructive so feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, reorient your thinking process through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym!

Time provided at the end of the event if anyone would like to share something composed during the session.
Journals + Pens provided, or bring your own notebook, journal, laptop, sketchpad, etc.

SESSION LEADER: HOLIDAY NOEL CAMPANELLA

*7PM*

This event is graciously hosted by Coop Gallery at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

*BEER by Jackalope Brewing Co.

*PASTRIES by Dozen Bakery
*FREE WITH $5 SUGGESTED DONATIONS GOING TO ABORTION CARE TENNESSEE

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the FEBRUARY 4 Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl at The Packing Plant: Zines, Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Design, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Custom Apparel, Handmade Art, & more!

1-5pm (sunset)

Free

Educators' Cooperative + FNPL are hosting a members-only poetry reading!

Bring a favorite poem to share, find a new favorite in the Free Nashville Poetry Library stacks, and meet local poets and educators who’ll help us write and recite our own.

EdCo Members only.

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer.

 
This generative writing session features unique prompts to respond to. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt - the prompts exist to be constructive so feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, reorient your thinking process through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym!

Time provided at the end of the event if anyone would like to share something composed during the session.
Journals + Pens provided, or bring your own notebook, journal, laptop, sketchpad, etc.

SESSION LEADER: MIKAYLA ELIAS

*7PM*

This event is graciously hosted by Coop Gallery at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

*PASTRIES provided by DOZEN BAKERY
*FREE WITH 100% of DONATIONS GOING TO ABORTION CARE TENNESSEE

POETRY WITH A CAPITOL P: Protest, Propaganda, Presidency, Power, Politics, Profit, Panic, Police, Prison, Privilege, Patriotism, Progress...

A night of activations featuring:

Ariel Bui

Jamspoken

Christine Hall
William Lipchik
Richard Perkins
Carson Colenbaugh
Robyn Leigh Lear
JayVe Montgomery
Espy Kremer
Freeman World

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6
8PM

@ Random Sample

*FREE WITH $5 SUGGESTED DONATION = 100% DONATIONS GOING TO ACLU-TN

WRITER'S GYM is back! 

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. 

This generative writing session will last approximately 90 minutes, and feature unique prompts to respond to. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt - the prompts exist to be constructive so feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, reorient your thinking process through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym!

Time provided at the end of the event if anyone would like to share something composed during the session.

Journals + Pens provided, or bring your own notebook, journal, laptop, sketchpad, etc.

SESSION LEADER: Jacob Milstein

*7PM

*This event is graciously hosted by Coop Gallery

at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

*BEER provided by Jackalope Brewing Co.(!)

*BAKED GOODS provided by Dozen Bakery(!)
*This event is absolutely FREE - DONATIONS ENCOURAGED

*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO ABORTION CARE TENNESSEE*

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!

 
*Special Guests*Vegan Pop-Up by LUCKY VEGAN

Local Beer by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

'Bad' Portraits by DAKOTA JERNIGAN

Face Painting by BECK KING

E t A l. Poetry Readings are at least one visiting poet, and at least one local poet reading an hour of poetry. Be provoked.

The November E t A l. Poetry Reading hosts -

ANDREW ZAWACKI (GA)   A 2015-16 Howard Foundation Fellow in Poetry, Andrew Zawacki is the author of five poetry books: Unsun : f/11 (Coach House, 2019), Videotape (Counterpath, 2013), Petals of Zero Petals of One (Talisman House, 2009), Anabranch (Wesleyan, 2004), and By Reason of Breakings (Georgia, 2002). A former Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Scholar, he earned his doctorate from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Zawacki has also published four books in France: Sonnetssonnants, translated by Anne Portugal; Georgia and Carnet Bartleby, both translated by Sika Fakambi; and Par Raison de brisants, translated by Antoine Cazé and a finalist for the Prix Nelly Sachs. Anabranche, translated by Sika Fakambi, is forthcoming from Éditions Grèges.

With fellowships from the NEA, Centre National du livre, and French Voices, he translated Sébastien Smirou's My Lorenzo and See About. Zawacki also edited Afterwards: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995 and edited and co-translated Ales Debeljak's Without Anesthesia: New and Selected Poems. He is Professor of English at the University of Georgia.

ANIKA POTLURI (TN)
Anika Potluri is a first-year MFA candidate in Poetry. She holds a BA from Cornell University where she studied Literatures in English. She was a 2020-21 Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets June Fellow. Her work appears in The Massachusetts Review and The Adroit Journal.

WILLIAM LIPCHIK (TN)
William Roger Lipchik is a Senior at Belmont University, Majoring in Film with an emphasis in Screenwriting, and minors in Art History. He’s an aspiring poet and comedy writer- frequenting local art magazine publications and writing for Belmont Universities sketch comedy group ‘Fall Follies’. He currently resides in Nashville, wishing he could be more like Allen Ginsberg and Joan Didion every day.



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 8PMTHE PACKING PLANT, 507 HAGAN ST.FREE, OUTDOORS
*BEER PROVIDED BY JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more! 

In celebration of historic black poetics, FNPL is teaming up with Po' Boys & Poets + EBCM for THE 3RD ANNUAL NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST (!)

Featured Poets Lineup Includes:

KHAOS

James C. Floyd (The Jefferson Street Poet)

Komplex Simplicity

Black Widow

MAMA

The Poet Has Spoken

Black Widow

Spoke N-Words

B. Long

When:
Sunday, October 16th, 3-7pm

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more! 

E t A l. Poetry Readings are at least one visiting poet, and at least one local poet reading an hour of poetry. Be provoked. 

This E t A l. Poetry Reading hosts -

 
Kevin Sampsell (OR) 

 Kevin Sampsell is an editor (Portland Noir and other books), publisher (Future Tense Books), bookstore employee (Powell’s Books), collage artist, and author (the short story collection Creamy Bullets, the memoir, A Common Pornography and the novel, This Is Between Us). His book, I Made an Accident (Collages and Poems), was just released from Clash Books. His stories, poems, and essays have appeared in publications and websites such as Southwest Review, Diagram, Salon, The Rumpus, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Paper Darts, Joyland, Hobart, Longreads, Best Sex Writing 2012, and Best American Essays 2013. He lives in Portland, Oregon. 

+

Malaka Gharib (TN)

 Malaka Gharib is a journalist, cartoonist and graphic novelist. She is the author of "I Was Their American Dream," winner of the 2020 Arab American Book Award, and "It Won't Always Be Like This." By day, she works as an editor at NPR. Her comics and writing have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Catapult, The Seventh Wave Magazine, The Nib, Saveur Magazine, The Believer Magazine and The New Yorker. She has been profiled in The Washington Post and The New York Times. 

+

Simba Alik (TN)

 Simba Alik, also known as Simba The Poet, is a Nashville based spoken word artist and communications professional. Simba is involved in his community as a mentor, workshop leader, and organizer. He is most known for his contribution to the movement for Black and trans lives through his poetry. 

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!   

FNPL Hosts The Second *Poets With Books During Our Pandemic* A Triple Book Release Poetry Reading, Featuring Poets Whose Books Have Been Published During Our Pandemic:
*Richard Perkins Swan Princess (Public Zoo Press) + Antichrist+
*Meg Wade Slick Like Dark (Tupelo Press)
*Lauren Turner Shape Note Singing (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press)

*Richard Perkins: Artist/Poet. Nashville local. Swan Princess, Antichrist+, Come Down Off The Cross, We Can Use The Wood. IG @whothefuckisrichardperkins

*Meg Wade is a National Poetry Series finalist and a former Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellow at the University of Wisconsin's Creative Writing Institute. Her chapbook, Slick Like Dark, won the 2017 Tupelo Press Snowbound Chapbook Award and was published by Tupelo Press. Meg has been the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize and is Curator and Co-Founder of Be Witched, an award winning literary and arts event series. She lives and writes in Nashville, Tennessee where she is currently at work on a Master’s of Divinity and Vanderbilt.
*Lauren Turner is a writer and musician (Lou Turner, Styrofoam Winos) in Nashville, TN. She is an MFA candidate in poetry at Randolph College and the author of Shape Note Singing, her debut chapbook from Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. Turner’s most recent album Songs for John Venn was deemed “some kind of low-key masterpiece” by Aquarium Drunkard.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 6PM
This event is outdoors, and social distancing is encouraged. BYOB + Blanket + $ To Support The Poets - Bring Home 3 New Books! 

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!     

In celebration of historic black poetics, EBCM is partnering with Po' Boys and Poets, The Free Nashville Poetry Library, and The Packing Plant to bring you the 2nd Annual National Black Poetry Day!!

Featuring Poets: 

Henry L. Jones

Debria Love

Ciona Rouse 

Spoke N-Words

Mo Christo
Jody Harris

When:
Sunday, October 17th from 3-7pm!

Where:
507 Hagan St, Nashville, TN 37212

There will be food, drinks, art, local vendors, raffles, and of course some amazing poetry! You don’t want to miss it!

*Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!    

FNPL Hosts The First In A Series *Poets With Books During Our Pandemic* A Triple Book Release Poetry Reading Featuring Poets Whose Books Have Been Published During Our Pandemic:

*C.I. Aki The World Black, Beautiful, And Beast (April Gloaming Press)

*AM Ringwalt The Wheel (Spuyten Duyvil Publishing)

*Dan Hoy Where The Sky Meets The Ocean And The Air Tastes Like Metal And The The Birds Don’t Make A Sound (Trnsfr Books)

*C.I. Aki, the son of a Nigerian economist and a Nigerian-Jamaican horticulturalist, is a poet, essayist, filmmaker, and educator based in Nashville, TN. His debut collection of poems The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast is a witness to the constraints and restraints upon the beautiful freedom of the black soul. You can follow him on Instagram @ soul_lit_writer or his linktr.ee.C.I.Aki

*AM Ringwalt is a writer and musician. The author of The Wheel (Spuyten Duyvil, 2021), her work appears or is forthcoming in Annulet, Music & Literature, Black Warrior Review and La Vague. She teaches creative writing at Belmont University and The Porch and is a contributing blogger for Action Books. Called "ghostly" by American Songwriter, Waiting Song is her most recent record.

*Dan Hoy's most recent book is the collaborative novel WHERE THE SKY MEETS THE OCEAN AND THE AIR TASTES LIKE METAL AND THE BIRDS DON'T MAKE A SOUND (Trnsfr Books, 2021), co-written with Mike Kleine. He's also the author of various poetry collections, including the poetic trilogy THE DEATHBED EDITIONS (Octopus Books, 2016), and sci-fi poetry chapbooks 1984 (Ghost City Press, 2020) and THE TERRAFORMERS (Third Man Books, 2017).

Due to the cancellation of Bonnaroo this year, FNPL is adding new artists & makers to the Sep 4 Show & Sell roster and re-dubbing itself PACKAROO! We're also super jazzed about live DJ sets by community radio station WXNA, and vegan fare from local punks Guerilla Bizkits!

 *Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!  

 *Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!  

In the moment, we tend to immediately perceive experiences as “good” or “bad.” But a lot of the time, they’re just different shades of learning. Everything you’ve ever endured was meant to teach you something about yourself.

— Aetna Health Insurance Verified Twitter Account

I'm VERY excited to announce the release of my new chapbook, Republic of Gum.

It's been a long five years. The poems in the book were written in 2016-2017. I've been sitting on them because it didn't feel like the right time to put it out until now. It's less I'm releasing a book and more I'm being released from it. You know what I mean.

These are poems that were written on the precipice of a collapse that is now coming to pass. They're filled with portents of plagues, frogs, and virality. It's a real time portrait of fracturing and a collection pre-apocalyptic poems: before the end, before the collapse, before the law, and before always deferred revelations, as language collapses feedback.

Featuring

Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay- Indian-born epic poem collage stranger on self-imposed exile from New Nashville and finishing her "break up with America tour". Author of "This is Our War" (Penmanship Press 2016), "Everything Is Always Leaving" (M.C. Sarkar & Sons, Kolkata, 2019) and "Eveything Is Always Leaving".
(she's moving soon- see her while you still can )

Sam Malick Petschulat - the homie

Isolation Room- ambient vibes and shadowy beats

 *Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!  

 *Show & Sell* An Open-Air Maker's Bazaar at the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl - Zines, Indie + Experimental Comics, Small Press + DIY Poetry, Experimental Printing + Graphic Design, Book Art + Art Books, Risograph, Indie Illustrators, Screenprinting, Textual Textiles, Manga, Visual Language Art, Local + Handmade Art, and more!  

Po; Boys and Poets in collaboration with The Free Nashville Poetry Library present the
NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST. 

In celebration we will be releasing our long awaited book MAKE Vol. 2 a Po’boys and poets Anthology.

This festival will include Live poetry, as well as wide range of vendors: Visual Artists, Authors, merchants. 

This will be a great experience filled with high energy great vibes and beautiful art.

It's the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl (!) & Free Nashville Poetry Library will be setup & bursting forth with A POETRY OPEN MIC from Poetry Alley Gallery at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St).

Featuring poet CHLOE ROSE

5pm: Signups start

6-7pm: OPEN MIC

*5 minute MAX

FNPL will also have our GLORIOUS MERCH (Shirts, Journals, Lighters, Pocket Knives, more - All by TN artists) setup alongside SALT WEEKLY, who are releasing their newest issue (!)

Come out & SHOP=SUPPORT (!)

 A poetry reading often enacts the proximity and overlap between the attention of the audience and the utterance of the poet. *Poem Eat Song* hopes to enact a further threshold - the proximity and overlap between the lyric (as utilized/enacted in music toward a pairing with instrumental/harmonic melody) and the lyric (as it pertains to page, a single person’s utterance, to the poetic 'I' in written form, outside of, or with a different attention to, collaboration).

*Bea Troxel (of Bea Troxel)
*Jacob Milstein (of Jacob Milstein)
*JayVe Montgomery (of Abstract Black)

Bea Troxel (of Bea Troxel) -

CJ Hauser writes in her recent essay "The Crane Wife," "There is nothing more humiliating to me than my own desires." Bea Troxel's latest songs ask questions about rejection and sadness in relation to unrequited love. Doesn't the action of desiring create more strength, more resilience, and more joy even if the object of desire is never found? Can our ability to want change us? Her piece will be an exploration of want through the lens of lyric and sound.

[https://www.beatroxel.com/]

+

Jacob Milstein (of Jacob Milstein) -

[http://facebook.com/jacobmilsteinnexus]
[http://jacobmilstein.com]

+

JayVe Montgomery (of Abstract Black) -

“The Negro With The Trumpet At His Lips” is an electroacoustic exploration of Langston Hughes’ poem “Trumpet Player”. Montgomery will trigger sections of the poem and respond with tantara translations, creating sonic clouds in which the listener should ponder the sound at the bottom of a slave ship.

[https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/.../freddie-douggie-live...]

Join us at The Free Nashville Poetry Library on July 30th at 8pm as we host KIM VODICKA, KATE JAYROE, and MEAGEN CRAWFORD, for an evening of poetry, performance, and multi-media exploration, exegesis, and ecstasy.   

KIM VODICKA   The spokesbitch of a degeneration and heart-reactionary at the rearguard of the rose arts, Vodicka is the author of three full-length poetry collections: AESTHESIA BALDERDASH (Trembling Pillow Press, 2012), PSYCHIC PRIVATES (White Stag Publishing, 2018) and THE ELVIS MACHINE (CLASH Books, 2020), as well as the creator of several multimedia works, including a poetic comic series and a chapbook of sound poems on vinyl.   A two-time finalist for the Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize, her work can be found in TENDERLOIN, SPORK, QUEEN MOB'S TEAHOUSE, BEST AMERICAN EXPERIMENTAL WRITING, and elsewhere.   She will be joined in a multi-media performance of THE ELVIS MACHINE by HANNAH BEAUX NEAL.   Cruise her at: kimvodicka.com 

KATE JAYROE   From Little Mountain, South Carolina, and a graduate of Sewanee: The University of the South, and staff member of the Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Kate Jayroe holds a master's degree in fine arts from Portland State University, where she currently lives.   Author of the chapbook PARTS (Dorsa Brevia Press, 2018), her writing can be found in HAYDEN'S FERRY REVIEW, TAMMY, JOYLAND, VOL 1. BROOKLYN, JUKED, and elsewhere.   More at:  katejayroe.com 

MEAGEN CRAWFORD   A long-time Nashville resident and co-founder and co-editor of the literary and arts journal 'Pider, Meagen Crawford's work has previously appeared in TAGVVERK, ICHNOS, PRELUDE, APARTMENT, and X-PERI.   A multimedia artist as well as a poet, Crawford will be performing CURSED IMAGE, a long poem and video installation exploring the temporal and identitarian displacements and exigencies of social media consumption.  

This First Saturday Wedgwood-Houston Art Crawl join us at the FREE NASHVILLE POETRY LIBRARY and THE PACKING PLANT as we host our monthly Open Mic Series, this rendition featuring THE NASHVILLE MAYORAL AND METRO COUNCIL CANDIDATES (jJon Sewell, John Clemmons, Fabian Bedne, Howard Jones, Julia Clark-Johnson, and more) (!!!)  Candidates will read both their favorite poems as well as original poetry and will be available for questions and conversation.   Maybe Plato was wrong.. tonight we will lift the ban of poets from the Republic (!)  Open Mic sign-up begins at 6:30 pm, with readers scheduled to begin at 7pm (!) 

Zines, Comics, Art Books, DIY Bookmakers, Self Published Poetry, Riso, Prints, Small Press Books

-April Gloaming Press

-Crappy Magic Magazine 

-Endless Hunger Zine 

-Extended Play Press 

-Flatrock Poetry Open Mic 

-Free Nashville Poetry Library 

-Jetpack Stacey's Lemozine 

-Nashville Public Zine Library 

-Paper Towel Zine 

-Po' Boys & Poets 

-Risology Club 

-SALT Weekly 

-Wakeup Comics 

-Waxing & Waning Journal  

-Benji Anderson (@ kunkysu) 

-Grant Gasser (@ grant.gasser) 

-Zach Halfhill ( @ guerillabizkit) -Michael Hampton (@ mampyhikes) 

-Kate Madeira (@ katemadeira) 

-Ellen Schlabach (@ ellenschlabach_art) 

-Maxwell Sebastian (@ maxwellsebastian) 

-Lauren Rucker (@ motharucka) 

-Chelsea Velaga (@ chelsea.velaga)  

* Wedgewood/Houston Art Crawl * 

* at The Packing Plant 507 Hagan St.  * 

*BEER BY THE FINE FOLKS AT JACKALOPE* *  

POETRY SCHEDULE:
3:00 Anna Gordon
3:15 Chris Ketchum +
3:30 Meg Wade *
3:45 Olatunde Osinaike +
4:00 Richard Harper *
4:15 Ashley Roth +
4:30 Maggie Wells *
4:45 Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay +

Brought to us by:
* = Be Witched
+ = The Free Nashville Poetry Library

Join us June 8, 2019 at the 919 Complex off of Gallatin Ave, right in the heart of East Nashville, as we spotlight the many different creative endeavors our neighbors are involved in. As residents, business owners, and just freakin’ fans of all things within Nashville, we wanted to find a way to celebrate the various facets of this thriving creative community with one huge block party. With the help of our wonderful partners and sponsors The East Nashvillian, Youth Empowerment through Arts & Humanities, Inc., Tournament Studio, Friendly Arctic Printing & Design, Soft Junk, Delgado Guitars, Underwood (Union Wine Company), Slow & Low, Pennington Distilling Co., Stringjoy, Nashville Hemp, SoBro Coffee Company, and Bristow Gin, Under the Sun will be a day of community fun that you don't want to miss!

From music, art, poetry, makers, and more, our goal is to create an environment of collaboration that blends these different worlds together. What better way to do this than a day out in the sun, drinking good beer and cocktails, shopping our amazing vendors, and eating the best food truck food Nashville has to offer? So come party with us as we celebrate everything Under The Sun!

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. The session will last approximately 90 minutes, and feature unique prompts to respond to. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt. The prompts are there to be helpful; feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, reorient your thinking pattern through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym. If anyone would like to read something they’ve just written, that’s how we’ll finish the session.   

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein  

Hot Summer Nights(!)  Come on out to the Poetry Alley Gallery OPEN MIC - at The Packing Plant for the Wedgewood/Houston Art Crawl (!)  

-Sign Up Starts @ 6:30  

-Live Poetry @ 7-8PM (5 Minute Time Limit)  

* FEATURED POETRY * By Po' Boys n Boys  

Join us Wednesday, May 22 at 8pm for DREAM EATER, an immersive poetry experience presented by the Free Nashville Poetry Library.   Featuring LA poet Giulia Bencivenga along with local poets Dan Hoy & Crystal Wood, with soundscapes and lights by Doug Lehmann. Bring your own body.  

***  Los Angeles-based poet Giulia Bencivenga is touring the United States to celebrate the release of Giulia Bencivenga is a Maniac (Inpatient Press) and Unreasonable Whole (Gauss PDF). She runs the reading series Two Snake in LA with her best friend, Emily.  

Dan Hoy is the author of The Deathbed Editions (Octopus Books, 2016) and several poetry chapbooks, including The Terraformers (Third Man Books, 2017) and The Tree (Solar Luxuriance, 2016). His recent collaboration with Mike Kleine, We R the World, was featured in the 2019 Spring Thing Festival of Interactive Fiction. He lives in Nashville, TN.  

Crystal Wood's writing is concerned with the fine line between the surrealist state and human reality. She explores the idea of tapping into unconscious realms and the power held within memory. She self-published her first collection of poems entitled "The Vine" in 2016, and is currently located in Nashville, TN.  ***  This event is FREE (Donations are encouraged!)  Special Thanks to Channel To Channel Gallery 

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. The session will last approximately 90 minutes, and feature unique prompts to respond to. Take as long or as little time as you'd like with each prompt. The prompts are there to be helpful; feel free to reinterpret them, flip them, or do your own thing entirely. Explore your mind, compose specific poems or stories on the spot, reorient your thinking pattern through unorthodox entrances, or edit something you’ve already written — It’s your gym. If anyone would like to read something they’ve just written, that’s how we’ll finish the session.

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein 

Zines, Comics, Art Books, DIY Bookmakers, Self Published Poetry, Riso, Prints, Small Press Books

-April Gloaming Press

-Crappy Magic Magazine 

-Endless Hunger Zine 

-Extended Play Press 

-Flatrock Poetry Open Mic 

-Free Nashville Poetry Library 

-Jetpack Stacey's Lemozine 

-Nashville Public Zine Library 

-Paper Towel Zine 

-Po' Boys & Poets 

-Risology Club 

-SALT Weekly 

-Wakeup Comics 

-Waxing & Waning Journal  

-Benji Anderson (@ kunkysu) 

-Grant Gasser (@ grant.gasser) 

-Zach Halfhill ( @ guerillabizkit) -Michael Hampton (@ mampyhikes) 

-Kate Madeira (@ katemadeira) 

-Ellen Schlabach (@ ellenschlabach_art) 

-Maxwell Sebastian (@ maxwellsebastian) 

-Lauren Rucker (@ motharucka) 

-Chelsea Velaga (@ chelsea.velaga)  

* Wedgewood/Houston Art Crawl * 

* at The Packing Plant 507 Hagan St.  * 

*BEER BY THE FINE FOLKS AT JACKALOPE* *  

The Nashville Independent Poetry Festival is a FREE Metro Arts THRIVE grant-funded all-day, all-ages, pet-friendly, outdoor celebration of the independent creative writing communities of Nashville!  www.nashvillepoetryfestival.com

Join us at The Bongo Java Lot, at East Nashville’s famed 5-Points, as we celebrate with live poetry performances, small presses, local bookstores, independent journals & zines, representatives from reading series & open mics, literary collectives & non-profits!   Bring a blanket, bust out the lawn chairs, & don’t forget the sunscreen! Food trucks will be on-site, and, for the adult poets, we’ll have a full beer & booze bar! For the young poets we’ll have plenty of activities, including live illustrated caricatures, arts & crafts/jewelry-making with letters, beads, and gemstones, a magnetic poetry wall contest, face-painting/temporary tattoos & poems on demand!  

Featured Poets: Christine Hall, Kory Wells (The Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro), Nathan Spoon, Frank 'Frizzy' Sykes, Mumina Ali (The 2019 Youth Poet Laureate of Nashville), Dr. Destiny O. Birdsong

(Special Guest Poets: Drew Sevel, C.A. Williams, Caitlyn Parris, Ashley Trabue)  

Participating Community Members:The Porch Writer's Collective, Extended Play Press, April Gloaming Press, Waxing & Waning Journal, The Regenerates: Authors & Arttists, Southern Word, Turnip Green Creative Reuse, McKay's Books, Defunct Books, Wakeup Comics, Fairytales Bookstore, Risology Club, Crappy Magic Experience, Black Dog Beads, A Night of Free Speech, Lyrical Brew, Poetry In The Boro, East Side Storytellin', Flatrock Poetry Open Mic, Poetry In The Brew, Po Boys n Poets, Nashville Canon Revue, World of Woohoo, SALT Weekly, Cold Lunch Recordings, Banana Tapes  

Festival Sponsors:Vui's Kitchen, I Love Juice Bar, The Porch Witer's Collective, Nashville Fringe Festival, The Wild Cow, Bongo Java Co., Clawson's Pub & Deli, Flatrock Coffee & Tea, Gardens of Babylon, Third Coast Comedy Club