PAST EVENTS

POETRY AT THE PACKING PLANT FOR ABORTION CARE TN / MARCH, 2023

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

SHOW & SELL / MARCH, 2023

POETRY AT THE PACKING PLANT FOR ABORTION CARE TN / MARCH, 2023

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

WRITER'S GYM / FEBRUARY, 2023

POETRY AT THE PACKING PLANT FOR ABORTION CARE TN / MARCH, 2023

WRITER'S GYM / FEBRUARY, 2023

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

SHOW & SELL / FEBRUARY, 2023

POETRY READING, EDCO MEMBERS / JAN, 2023

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

POETRY READING, EDCO MEMBERS / JAN, 2023

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.

WRITER'S GYM / JANUARY, 2023

POETRY READING, EDCO MEMBERS / JAN, 2023

POETRY WITH A CAPITOL P / JANUARY 6, 2023

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer.

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 / JANUARY 6, 2023

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 / DECEMBER, 2022

POETRY WITH A CAPITOL P / JANUARY 6, 2023

WRITER'S GYM / DECEMBER, 2022

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 / DECEMBER, 2022

POETRY WITH A CAPITOL P / JANUARY 6, 2023

WRITER'S GYM / DECEMBER, 2022

*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

ET AL POETRY READING / NOVEMBER, 2022

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST III / OCT, 2022

ET AL POETRY READING / NOVEMBER, 2022

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 / NOVEMEBER, 2022

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST III / OCT, 2022

ET AL POETRY READING / NOVEMBER, 2022

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST III / OCT, 2022

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 / OCTOBER, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / SEPTEMBER, 2022

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST III / OCT, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / SEPTEMBER, 2022

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 / SEPTEMBER, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / SEPTEMBER, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / AUGUST, 2022

40TH ANNUAL THAT ROSS COLLIER SOUNDFEST / AUGUST, 2022

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 -

Benjamin Gray

As a poet, most of my work is in senryu, haiku, and other short forms. Occasionally a longer one sneaks out, too. I have had my work published and (when there isn’t a pandemic) I perform live. I have had several solo shows and been part of many group shows. I also participate in a variety of poetry nights and open mics around the city and state. While there aren’t any live shows to see me perform at these days, a selection of my writing has been published by Vegetarian Alcoholic Press in their collection, “Return to the Gathering Place of the Waters”, and by the Haiku Society of America.

Scott Zieher

Scott Zieher was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin and received his MFA in poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in 1996. His poetry has been published in The Iowa Review and The Believer and his art has been featured in Manor House Quarterly and The Pornographers, a novel by Christopher Grimes (Jaded Ibis, 2012). He has published seven books of poetry, most recently, THE BROWNSVILLE QUARTERLY, a book-length poem in the form of a newspaper that was published to coincide with a solo exhibition of collages at Marvin Gardens in June 2019. He was a founding member of Emergency Press and is the author of articles on contemporary art for numerous international publications, including the book Band of Bikers (powerHouse, 2010), a collection of found photography from the early 1970s. He and his wife, Andrea Smith-Zieher opened the contemporary art gallery ZieherSmith in 2003 in New York City and relocated to Nashville, TN, where they continue to maintain regular, nomadic programming.

June Adam

June is a writer and musician living in Nashville, TN. She had her work published in TWANG Anthology in 2020. Thank you for listening.

40TH ANNUAL THAT ROSS COLLIER SOUNDFEST / AUGUST, 2022

The people have spoken - "STOP DOING THIS DAMN SHOW", they said! In an effort to appease the unruly masses, we are de-lighted to present THE FORTIETH (and final) THAT ROSS COLLIER SOUNDFEST 2022

---- WHERE? ----
August 13th, 1:30pm - 8:30pm

---- HOW? ----
Dragon Park / Fannie Mae Dees Park

---- WHEN? ----
An absolutely FREE show, open to the public. Performances by charitable ears such as:

Brainweight
Glenn Echo (NYC)
Bats
Ace of Spit (St Louis)
Jasmin Kaset
Abstract Black
Anne Malin Ringwalt
Nick Woods
The West Nashville Jazz Ensemble

Donations at door AND community raffle ticket sales will benefit Edgehill's Brighter Days After School & Summer Program.

---- WHY? ----
Tables, vendors, and other community blenders involving:

Tempo Nashville - Tacos et. al
NO USE Vintage Market
Random Sample Facepainting
Ouefooze Crafts
Bea Troxel's Introvert Corner
Renascence Books
The Porch Writer's Collective
Nashville Free Poetry Library
The ASSCAP / Body Mass Index Networking Tent
Centripetal Force Records
On-site Voter Registration courtesy of TBD
... and many more!

---- WHO? ----
Why not you? Wish your name was here?
Contact us to join forces, claim a space or table to represent yourself & your organization. Eagerly accepting inclusive & kind folks of all walks of art, crafts, or otherwise thoughtful endeavors.

SHOW & SELL / AUGUST, 2022

40TH ANNUAL THAT ROSS COLLIER SOUNDFEST / AUGUST, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / JULY, 2022

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 -

Nancy Huang

Nan Huang (黄洁) grew up in America and China. She is a Sewanee, VONA, Tin House, Watering Hole, and Pink Door fellow. Her debut poetry collection, Favorite Daughter, is out by Write Bloody Publishing. Her poetry, plays, and prose are published by The Offing, Cosmonauts Avenue, poets.org, The Margins, and film distribution company A24. She has a poetry MFA from NYU. She competed/resisted at CUPSI 2017 in Chicago, where all her poems were nominated for Best of the Rest. She sleeps in her bathtub in Brooklyn.

Tyler Friend

Tyler Friend was grown—and is still growing—in Tennessee, and they received their MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Tyler is the author of Him or Her or Whatever (Alternating Current Press, 2022) and the chapbook BUNKER, which is available in Third Man's "Literarium" book vending machine. Their poems have also shown up in Tin House, Hobart, and Hunger Mountain. They edit Francis House, design for Eulalia Books, teach, work at a library, and befriend all the cats.

Lily Someson

lily someson is a poet and essayist from Chicago. She has obtained a B.A. in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago and is a winner of the 2020 Eileen Lannan poetry prize with the Academy of American Poets, as well as the Spring 2021 Host Publications Chapbook Prize for her chapbook, mistaken for loud comets. She has been published or is forthcoming in Court Green, Queeriosity, and Columbia Poetry Review among others. She is currently a second-year Poetry MFA student at Vanderbilt University and an assistant poetry editor of the Nashville Review

SHOW & SELL / JULY, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / JULY, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JULY, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JUNE, 2022

ET AL. POETRY READING / JULY, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JULY, 2022

SHOW & SELL / MAY, 2022

SHOW & SELL / APRIL, 2022

SHOW & SELL / MARCH, 2022

SHOW & SELL / APRIL, 2022

SHOW & SELL / MARCH, 2022

SHOW & SELL / FEB, 2022

SHOW & SELL / MARCH, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JAN, 2022

SHOW & SELL / FEB, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JAN, 2022

SHOW & SELL / DEC, 2021

SHOW & SELL / FEB, 2022

SHOW & SELL / JAN, 2022

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / NOV 7, 2021

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 / NOV, 2021

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / NOV 7, 2021

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST II / OCT, 2021

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / NOV 7, 2021

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST II / OCT, 2021

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 / OCT, 2021

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / SEP 25, 2021

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST II / OCT, 2021

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / SEP 25, 2021

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).

PACKAROO / SEP, 2021

POETS WITH BOOKS DURING OUR PANDEMIC / SEP 25, 2021

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 / SEP, 2021

REPUBLIC OF GUM CHAPBOOK RELEASE READING / JULY 23, 2021

SHOW & SELL / AUGUST, 2021

REPUBLIC OF GUM CHAPBOOK RELEASE READING / JULY 23, 2021

SHOW & SELL / AUGUST, 2021

REPUBLIC OF GUM CHAPBOOK RELEASE READING / JULY 23, 2021

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 / JULY, 2021

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST / OCT, 2020

REPUBLIC OF GUM CHAPBOOK RELEASE READING / JULY 23, 2021

SHOW & SELL / JUNE, 2021

NATIONAL BLACK POETRY DAY FEST / OCT, 2020

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.

ENORMOUS ROOMS / MAY, 2020

FNPL 1ST POET-IN-RESIDENCE + DDS KICKOFF EVENT / FEB 18, 2020

DREAM SOUP Open Mic / MARCH, 2020

Enormous Rooms(!), inspired by Volta's "Interiors" series. Poets, from Nashville and not from Nashville give us an update of their life under quarantine and perform some poetry.

We open the series with Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, who checks in from Phoenix, Arizona. She was touring her poetry album ‘i don’t know anyone here’ when the pandemic began and has been stranded in a transitory purgatory since then.

Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay was the first Nashville Youth Poet Laureate and the 2016 Poet Ambassador for the Southeast. She has been published in Nashville Arts Magazine, The Tennessean, Chapter 16, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Shanghai Literary Review, Atlas and Alice, The Felt, Indian Lit, and Poetry Society of America and forthcoming in Connecticut River Review. Her first book "this is our war" was released through Penmanship Press in 2016. Her second book "everything is always leaving" was released through M.C. Sarkar & Sons in Kolkata, India in 2019. And also, very recently her poetry album ‘i don’t know anyone here’ has been published and released in Nashville, TN.

Also Featuring: Chance Chambers, Bill Brown, Shaunna Barbee

DREAM SOUP Open Mic / MARCH, 2020

FNPL 1ST POET-IN-RESIDENCE + DDS KICKOFF EVENT / FEB 18, 2020

DREAM SOUP Open Mic / MARCH, 2020

It's the 1st Saturday Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl (!) So: DREAM SOUP & OPEN MICCompose your very own dream poem from our collection of dream fragments & read your dream! Or dream a dream you’ve already dreamed - it’s a dream open mic (!)DREAM with us + SOUP with us = DREAM SOUP with us (!)*Soup + Sign-up - 6 *Open Mic - 7 *FREEPoetry Alley at THE PACKING PLANT - 507 Hagan St.

FNPL 1ST POET-IN-RESIDENCE + DDS KICKOFF EVENT / FEB 18, 2020

Join us as we kickoff FNPL's 1st Poet-In-Residence: MATHIAS SVALINA & the DREAM DELIVERY SERVICE (!)
"As the Dream Delivery Service I write dreams every day & deliver them to subscribers for a month: hand-deliver via bike before dawn to nearby subscribers & by mail to more distant subscribers." ~ dreamdeliveryservice.com ~ Featuring ~DREAM POETRY~ by: ~Mathias Svalina~ ~Kashif Graham~ ~Dana Malone~ ~Alric McDermott~ ~Meg Wade~& "all that dirt for sleeping" by jacob stovall
~FREE~ ~8PM~~BEER: Small-batch Legends of The Fall Lager (!) by Jackalope Brewery (Donations Much Appreciated)~ ~DREAM DELIVERY SUBSCRIPTIONS sign-up~ ~SPECIAL THANKS to Channel to Channel (Ft. Dustin Hedrick's immersive, entire-gallery show 'Cutting Edge')~ ~At The Packing Plant: 507 Hagan St.~

INFAMI / DEC, 2019

FNPL 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY READING / NOV 12, 2019

FNPL 1ST POET-IN-RESIDENCE + DDS KICKOFF EVENT / FEB 18, 2020

In partnership with Metro Arts Thrive, The Free Nashville Poetry Library, POVA (Poverty and the Arts), and led by Free Frye Performance Group, 21c Presents INFAMI. A multiple media project founded in poetry, INFAMI is an ensemble production exploring relationships through channels of spoken word, dance, and visual arts. Love, Ancestry, Brotherhood, and the Invisible are among the topics explored by a diverse group of artists with vast backgrounds, including those previously and currently impacted by homelessness. INFAMI reveals that these issues are not simply black and white, but consist of a complex maelstrom of problems that can only be solved selflessly.

Join us for this special event December 8th at 6pm. Free and open to the public with complimentary wine

WRITER'S GYM / NOV, 2020

FNPL 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY READING / NOV 12, 2019

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

FNPL 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY READING / NOV 12, 2019

The Free Nashville Poetry Library, at The Packing Plant, and with assistance from Channel to Channel, is celebrating its 1 year (~& a day~) Anniversary (!)

We're celebrating by throwing (what else) a POETRY READING, having open library hours & checking out books, plus we'll be accepting book donations, and peddling FNPL merch (*all of which is made by commissioning local artists, and proceeds from which pay the poets, and keep the library going*).

Like all FNPL events, entry is ABSOLUTELY FREE (*Donations are very ENCOURAGED*), and all are welcome.

BEER provided by the stellar souls of Nashville’s own JACKALOPE BREWING (*again, donations very ENCOURAGED y’all*).

Join us as we welcome visiting poet MATT HART (OH), new Nashville poet MIKE YOUNG (Formerly of NM), and bonafide Nashville poet GABRIELA GONZALES (!)

MATT HART is the author of seven books of poems, including most recently Radiant Action and Radiant Companion. Everything Breaking/For Good is just out from YesYes Books. Hart’s poems, reviews, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Academy of American Poetsonline, Big Bell, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, Jam Tarts Magazine, jubilat, Kenyon Review online, Lungfull!, and POETRY, among others. After earning his BS in Philosophy from Ball State University in 1992, Hart recorded and toured as lead vocalist for the LOOKOUT! Records band Squirtgun. Their music was featured both on MTV and in the Kevin Smith movie Mallrats. In 2001, Hart earned an MFA in Poetry from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a 2013 individual artist grant from The Shifting Foundation, and fellowships from both the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. A co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety (now celebrating its 25th year without a lost-time accident!), he lives in Cincinnati where he is Associate Professor in Creative Writing and the Chair of Liberal Arts at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Currently, he plays guitar and shouts in the band NEVERNEW.

MIKE YOUNG is the author of two poetry collections: 2014’s Sprezzatura, and 2010’s We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough, which was selected by readers ofThe Believer as one of the Top 20 Poetry Books of 2010. He is also the author of the story collection Look! Look! Feathers, which Publishers Weekly called "relevant, wise, and immensely enjoyable." Since 2007, he's run Magic Helicopter Press, which puts out chapbooks and full length books and interactive art. MHP has received nice nods from the New York Times, Nylon, The Rumpus, American Book Review, and others. Mike lives in Nashville, TN, but his band, Clementine Was Right, still lives in Santa Fe, NM.

GABRIELA GONZALES is a Nashville based writer infatuated with the beautiful tragedy of human connection. She has had work published in Awakened Voices Literary Magazine, formercactus, Synaesthesia Magazine, and Waxing and Waning journal, and has work forthcoming in Cosmonauts Avenue, Lost Balloon Magazine, and Wigleaf. She is a writing mentor with the Nashville non-profit Southern Word. Gabriela really appreciates giraffes, the oxford comma, and babies dressed like hipsters.

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / OCT, 2019

THE ELVIS MACHINE: VODICKA, JAYROE, CRAWFORD / JULY, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / OCT, 2019

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 (!)

POEM EAT SONG / AUG, 2019

THE ELVIS MACHINE: VODICKA, JAYROE, CRAWFORD / JULY, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / OCT, 2019

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...]

THE ELVIS MACHINE: VODICKA, JAYROE, CRAWFORD / JULY, 2019

NASHVILLE MAYORAL & METRO COUNCIL CANDIDATES POETRY OPEN MIC / JULY, 2019

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.

NASHVILLE MAYORAL & METRO COUNCIL CANDIDATES POETRY OPEN MIC / JULY, 2019

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 (!)

ET AL. POETRY READING / JUNE, 2019

NASHVILLE MAYORAL & METRO COUNCIL CANDIDATES POETRY OPEN MIC / JULY, 2019

ET AL. POETRY READING / JUNE, 2019

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* *

UNDER THE SUN FEST / JUNE, 2019

NASHVILLE MAYORAL & METRO COUNCIL CANDIDATES POETRY OPEN MIC / JULY, 2019

ET AL. POETRY READING / JUNE, 2019

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!

WRITER'S GYM / JUNE, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / JUNE 1, 2019

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / JUNE 1, 2019

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

DREAM EATER / MAY, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / JUNE 1, 2019

WRITER'S GYM / MAY, 2019

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

WRITER'S GYM / MAY, 2019

NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL / APRIL 14, 2019

WRITER'S GYM / MAY, 2019

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

SHOW & SELL / MAY, 2019

NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL / APRIL 14, 2019

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* *

NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL / APRIL 14, 2019

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

WRITER'S GYM / JAN, 2018

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / APRIL, 2019

ROSIE ACCOLA   Rosie Accola is a zine-maker, editor, and poet who splits her time between Michigan and Chicago. Her work has been published in Peach Mag, Hooligan Magazine, and Cosmonauts Avenue, among others. "Referential Body" is her first full-length collection. https://ghostcitypress.com/books/referential-body https://www.peachmgzn.com/rosie-accola https://sundresspublications.wordpress.com/2018/03/12/the-wardrobes-best-dressed-feel-better-by-rosie-accola/
FRANKIE IMPASTATO Frankie Impastato is a New York native, drummer, and writer affiliated with Hooligan Magazine. She tours with the bands Masceal and Oso Oso. She’s picky about bagels and likes to wear stripes.
CHLOE ROSE Chloe Rose is a Nashville based musician and poet, transfemme fire spirit, and skater brat whose writing explores, confronts, and recalibrates the bodily expectations and demands embedded in contemporary society.
FREE EVENT At The Packing Plant ALL AGES * EVERYONE WELCOME * DONATIONS ENCOURAGED

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / APRIL, 2019

It's National Poetry Month (!) & The Nashville Independent Poetry Festival is ~1~ week away(!) So come out & share us a poem as we re-unveil the Design Art for *THE NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL* with a Poetry Alley Gallery OPEN MIC - at The Packing Plant, as part of the Wedgewood/Houston Art Crawl(!)

-Sign Up Starts @ 6:30

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

* FEATURED POET * - Ashley Trabue (https://dulcetshop.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage/products/vertebrae-ashley-trabue)

Also presenting *HUGE Bookmarks!*, a poem each from Nashville poet Nathan Spoon, & Murfreesboro Poet Laureate Kory Wells - These super-enhanced mockups will be made into regular-sized bookmarks & available at *THE NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL* (!)

ALL FEST ART & DESIGN by: Nashville artist Caroline Bowman is responsible for the art & design behind Cold Lunch Recordings’ Spew Fest, Bob Fest, Halloweird, East Nashville Crawfish Bash, and has designed for Sad Baxter, TWEN, Whoa Dakota, Record Store Day, & SXSW showcases (!)

** WWW.NASHVILLEPOETRYFESTIVAL.COM **

SPRING & ALL POETRY MARATHON / MARCH, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY OPEN MIC / APRIL, 2019

SPRING & ALL POETRY MARATHON / MARCH, 2019

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

POEM EAT SONG / MARCH, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY PARTY / MARCH, 2019

SPRING & ALL POETRY MARATHON / MARCH, 2019

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 collaboration).

-Sadie Dupuis (of Speedy Ortiz)
-Daniel Lucca Pujol (of Pujol)
-Lauryn Peacock (of Lauryn Peacock)
-Lauren Turner (of Styrofoam Winos)

WRITER'S GYM / MARCH, 2019

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY PARTY / MARCH, 2019

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

POETRY ALLEY GALLERY PARTY / MARCH, 2019

Come out & party with us as we unveil the ART for *THE NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL*(!) We’ll be twisting the night away to DJ Maggie Wells, sipping FREE Jackalope Beer, & trying to read whilst playing tag at The Packing Plant, as part of the Wedgewood/Houston Art Crawl, 6-9PM.

Also presenting *HUGE Bookmarks!*, featuring a poem each from Nashville poet Nathan Spoon, & Murfreesboro Poet Laureate Kory Wells(!) These super-enhanced mockups will be made into regular-sized bookmarks & available at *THE NASHVILLE INDEPENDENT POETRY FESTIVAL* this April(!)

ART & DESIGN by: Nashville super-artist Caroline Bowman is responsible for the art & design behind Cold Lunch Recordings’ Spew Fest, Bob Fest, Halloweird, East Nashville Crawfish Bash, and has designed for Sad Baxter, TWEN, Whoa Dakota, Record Store Day, & SXSW showcases (!)

We’ll also be joined by:

-THE FREE NASHVILLE POETRY LIBRARY - Books for checkout + merch by TN artists for sale

-WAKEUP COMICS - Purveyors of Alternative, Small Press, Indie books + Graphic Novels

-SALT WEEKLY - An irreverent new Nashville zine

-EXTENDED PLAY PRESS - Makers of fine Art Books by Nashville artists

RIGHT HERE/RIGHT NOW / FEB, 2019

SOUND=POETRY=SOUND / JAN 20, 2019

RIGHT HERE/RIGHT NOW / FEB, 2019

Join us at The Free Nashville Poetry Library for an evening that aims to explore the intersections of self expression in the form of poetry, the historical & cultural shape of these Nashville poets as it relates to their writing in, and of, the region, and the urgency of hearing & being heard by a wider array of communities.

Featuring live poetry performances, & a presentation/commentary of an influential piece of art in these poets’ voices:

Joseph Powell presents his poetry in relation to “Love Supreme,” recorded by iconic bandleader, and saxophonist John Coltrane. “Love Supreme,” Coltrane’s legendary 1964 album, was recorded in one take on December 9th, 1964, and continues to be revered for its transcendent evocation of the spiritual and the sublime. The album is considered by many critics, and music historians to be the greatest album ever recorded.

Kat Marsh presents her writings as they relate to the visual work of Thomas Miller, best known for his collection of mosaics of the founders of DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago; The historical, political artifacts of yearbooks in their depictions of race, and identity; The invention of the gas mask, then called a “smoke hood,” by African American inventor, politician, and businessman Garrett Morgan Sr.

Frank 'Frizzy' Sykes presents his performative poetry in response, and engagement with, Dr. Martin Luther King's historic "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered at The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28th, 1963. Considered the most influential speech of the 20th century by many historians, Dr. King famously departed from his pre-written speech at the call to "Tell them about the dream" from Mahalia Jackson, forming one of the most important, inspirational moments of the Civil Rights Movement.

- Guest Performance By JayVe Montgomery- JayVe Montgomery will present a brief lecture on the life and work of James Weldon Johnson, Literature and Creative Writing Professor at Fisk University, and author and co-composer of the alternative national anthem for the United States of America, 'Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing'. Underscoring and amending the social erasures experienced by members of the black diaspora in post-colonial apartheid societies, he'll perform a rendition of 'Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing 'on saxophone.

WRITER'S GYM / FEB, 2019

SOUND=POETRY=SOUND / JAN 20, 2019

RIGHT HERE/RIGHT NOW / FEB, 2019

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

SOUND=POETRY=SOUND / JAN 20, 2019

An evening of electronic sound art that utilizes the textual or spoken word as an experimental dynamic in performance. With Eve Maret, Linda Heck, and visiting writer/artist Haydyn Marina Jackson. //

Eve Maret Eve Maret is a multimedia artist and musician who employs a wide array of electronic and experimental techniques in her various disciplines, exploring the possibilities of personal and communal healing through art. Living in Nashville Tennessee, she is a co-founder and facilitator of the Hyasynth House, an electronic music collective and education center for female, trans, and non-binary musicians, artists, and producers. https://evemaret.bandcamp.com/ //

Linda Heck Linda Heck, of Memphis , TN , is a multimedia artist, musician, writer and founder of Electric Arcadia, a recording-based therapy retreat in Sewanee, TN that seeks to uncover the language of non-violent communication through the creative process and immersion in nature. Examining intersections of the occult, musical and literary tropes of the world canon, chance-based compositional procedures, and temporal re-alignment, Linda Heck’s multiple practices usher in a reunion of the lyric and the lyre, bridging the literary and musical divide, currently probing into the folk music of the computer. https://soundcloud.com/linda-heck //

Haydyn Marina Jackson Haydyn Marina Jackson is a multimedia poet currently situated in Asheville, NC, whose work speaks to a sense of new life in industrialized thought processes as they rub up against subtle naturalism and primal landscapes. Through allusions to expansiveness, location, and the body she investigates avant-garde romanticism, tactile textures, and spiritual trust in memory and modernism. She is the author of “Storm Surge Interlude” and “Sleep with Lava Inside” published by sensu____speak press of New Mexico. https://www.haydynmarinajackson.com/

RAE DAY(!) / JAN 13, 2019

ET AL. POETRY READING + FNPL INNAUGURATION / NOV, 2018

SOUND=POETRY=SOUND / JAN 20, 2019

A Celebratory Event of & For The Poetry of Rae Armantrout

A celebration the indomitable poetry of Rae Armantrout! Readings of her work by Nashville poets, readings of original poetry written in response, a presentation of recordings from poets outside of Nashville, a discussion of her writing, FOLLOWED by a live SKYPE chat with the poet Rae Armantrout herself (!)

*** BOOK GIVEAWAY: 1 COPY OF HER NEWEST BOOK - WOBBLE - TO ALL ATTENDEES (!) ***(THANKS TO WESLEYAN PRESS !)

Rae Armantrout is the author of 14 books of poetry, and a Pulitzer Prize winning poet whose books have repeatedly been finalists for The National Book Award.

WRITER'S GYM / JAN, 2018

ET AL. POETRY READING + FNPL INNAUGURATION / NOV, 2018

Session Leader: Jacob Milstein

ET AL. POETRY READING + FNPL INNAUGURATION / NOV, 2018

The 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.

Evan Kennedy //

Evan Kennedy is a poet and bicyclist who lives in San Francisco. He is the author of Jerusalem Notebook (O’clock Press), The Sissies (Futurepoem), and Terra Firmament (Krupskaya).

Olatunde Osinaike //

Olatunde Osinaike is a Nigerian-American poet and software developer from the West Side of Chicago. A Best of the Net and Bettering American Poetry nominee, his poem 'Mercy, Mercy Me' was recently selected by Kyle Dargan for inclusion in the 2018 Best New Poets anthology. An alumnus of Vanderbilt University, his most recent work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Kweli, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Cosmonauts Avenue, Lunch Ticket, Puerto del Sol, and Columbia Poetry Review, among other publications. His manuscript, The New Knew, was shortlisted for the 2018 C&R Press Winter Chapbook Series. He is currently on poetry staff at The Adroit Journal and you can find him at www.olatundeosinaike.com.

Maggie Wells //

Maggie Wells is the author of Pluto (The Wrath of Dynasty) and co-founder of Press Body Press. Her work has been featured in Best American Erotic Poems: From 1800 to the Present, The Cadence of Hooves Anthology, Nailed Magazine, Free Lunch, Dick Pig Review, Inquisitive Eater and others. She currently co-produces an art, music and literary event series called, Be Witched. Maggie writes an advice column under a pseudonym and currently lives in Nashville.