PAST EVENTS

Join playwright, actor, director, and fight choreographer Diego Gomez for a dynamic workshop that blends movement and writing. Using a practice called Viewpoints, this class will guide you through movement exploration to develop a shared vocabulary, building a unique piece of choreography. Then, we’ll dive into writing exercises to explore and expand the narrative. Perfect for writers and creators looking to push boundaries and discover new storytelling methods! Expect an engaging 90–100 minutes of movement, discussion, and creative writing.

Ready to move, write, and create?

*7PM

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

*PASTRIES provided by Dozen Bakery

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the NOVEMBER 2 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!

+ VOTE SIGNS by Paul Collins (!)

+ LIVE POETRY PORTRAITS by Jazz The Wordsmith

+ LIVE DJ SETS by WXNA

+ PIZZA by Dicey's Pizza & Tavern

+ DRINKS by Jackalope Brewing Co.

2PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

WEDNESDAY 10/9 is the next Writers Gym: OBSESSIONS

SESSION LEADER: Jenny

OBSESSIONS tell us secrets about characters. Obsessions can destroy or transform. Obsessions can be objects, rituals, or daily acts. Carefully examining obsessions can break us out of surface-level patterns into the pleasure of reading signs from others. This workshop will be twofold: identifying and working with your own obsessions as writers, but also experimenting with how obsessions are used in shaping fictional characters.

Jenny works as a community manager in video games by daylight, and by moonlight, tries to write.

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*7PM
*Hosted by COOP GALLERY (507 Hagan St.)
*Journals + materials provided by TURNIP GREEN CREATIVE REUSE
*Complimentary masks from MASK4MASH
*This event is FREE with encouraged donations going to SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the OCT 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 DJ SETS by WXNA

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN 

3PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Zine City Fest (2!): Celebrating limited-edition and independent publishing in Nashville, TN. Featuring handmade zines, artist books, small presses, comics, poetry chapbooks, and more.

Festivities (a market, an anthology, and a full day of zine workshops + demos) will take place on Saturday, September 28th + Sunday, September 29th, 2024 with support of Artville, a visual art festival taking place in Wedgewood-Houston and Chestnut Hill. (More info at artville.org).

MORE INFO + UPDATES @ zinecityfest

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

SESSION LEADER: Lily Rex

RIVERS & WAFFLE HOUSES: PLACE-BASED POETICS

A narrative is nothing without its setting. Regardless of genre, the places we write about become characters in themselves. As Walt Whitman said he “contain[ed] multitudes,” so does every place on earth.

How do we approach our craft mindfully when writing about real places where readers may have experienced anything on the spectrum of joy and tragedy? To what extent do we have the right to portray places we haven’t been to? How do we make places come alive? 

Lily Rex is a queer poet, musician, and former journalist whose writing is driven by real-world observation. In this workshop, participants will discuss the above questions, and more, and work on short prompts. Come prepared to write about places you love or visited recently.

*7PM

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

*PASTRIES provided by Dozen Bakery

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

ZINE TOWN(!): Ahead of the September 27-29 ZINE CITY FEST II, we're hosting a special zine & book arts soiree during the Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl upstairs at The Packing Plant!

FT:

-SALT Weekly

-Amy Kuttab

-April Gloaming Publishing

-Betty Vou Plaît

-Abraham Moore 

4-9PM~
Free
All-ages

Upstairs

+ ON-AIR OPEN STUDIO TOURS by 101.5 WXNA FM
+ SUBS by Dicey's Pizza & Tavern
+ DRINKS by Jackalope Brewing Co.

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

SESSION LEADER: Jonah Barton

RADICAL REVISION:

This Writer's Gym will focus on the importance of revision within the poetic practice. By revising old drafts of poems with a new eye and exploring various strategies or 'radical' revision, poets will learn to approach their poetry with a new sense of openness and exploration.

Poets should prepare to bring drafts of their own poems to experiment with and revise, however, bringing your own work is not necessary! We will be looking into techniques that poets at any stage of their practice can integrate within their writing.

*7PM

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

*PASTRIES provided by Dozen Bakery

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

ZINE TOWN(!): Ahead of September's ZINE CITY FEST II, we're hosting a special zine & book arts soiree during the Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl upstairs at The Packing Plant!

Participating Artist-Makers:
-SALT Weekly

-Frank Hand

-Ryan King

-Nashville Comics Arts Festival

4-9PM~
Free
All-ages

Upstairs

+ ON-AIR OPEN STUDIO TOURS by 101.5 WXNA FM
+ SUBS by Dicey's Pizza & Tavern
+ DRINKS by Jackalope Brewing Co.

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

SESSION LEADER: Fjolla Hoxha

WE DO WHAT WE CAN: 

Written words are never words only. They are symbols that utter reactions from occurring situations that evoke and carry emotions. Playwright, theater and performance artist Fjolla Hoxha (from Kosovo) will host a workshop during which the participants will be invited to look at language as a performative action. How do texts perform and what subtext drives the certain ways that they act? What power does written word hold in constructing, deconstructing and changing realities? Through writing prompts and discussions, if not finding answers, the goal of this workshop will be to expand on the complexity of these questions.

*7PM

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

*PASTRIES provided by Dozen Bakery

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

ZINE TOWN(!): Ahead of September's ZINE CITY FEST II, we're hosting a special zine & book arts soiree upstairs at The Packing Plant!

Participating Artist-Makers:
-SALT Weekly
-Elise Anderson

-AP COMFORT
-Public Zoo Press
-Autumn McPeak

-Jonah Barton

4PM-Sunset
Free
All-ages

+ ON-AIR OPEN STUDIO TOURS by 101.5 WXNA FM
+ SUBS by Dicey's Pizza & Tavern
+ DRINKS by Jackalope Brewing Co.

Join us for Summer Reuse Fest, a block party in Chestnut Hill, on Saturday, June 29 from 10am to 4pm!

-Turtle observation with @nashvillewildlifecc
-DIY artist trading cards with @nowatnpl.studio
-Activity with @adventuresci
-Vintage from @yallsboutique
-Ceramics & quilted bags from @feralpotteryco
-Artisan goods from @raeyoyoung
-Silversmith jewelry from @sedonarosestudio
-Zines from @nashvillepoetrylibrary
-Crochet cacti from @maequeenvintage
-Stained glass from Cheri Tapp

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

SESSION LEADER: Sarah Calise of Nashville Queer History

Writer's Gym: Queer Visuals - Join Sarah Calise from Nashville Queer History as they present historic queer visuals from local LGBTQ communities. Calise will talk about how we can make meaningful interpretations from historic images, even when we do not have context, which is often the case in archival institutions. Using our emotions, personal experiences, and intuition, draw inspiration from these queer visuals to create poetry, prose, art, or other creative pursuits. We will connect the past with the present as we imagine a queer future.

*7PM

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

*PASTRIES provided by Dozen Bakery

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

The Premier monthly poetry night in collaboration with the Free Nashville Poetry Library, Sewanee School of Letters, and all you lovers of love and life and language - free and open to the public.

Lana Matthews Sain is an MFA candidate in poetry at the Sewanee School of Letters. A native of Middle Tennessee, she lives and works in Sewanee, TN where she raised her two sons. Lana writes into the often dismissed experiences that shape, label and haunt southern women, and she enjoys the quiet and solace of the outdoors. She tends to quench her thirst for adventure with mountain biking, mountaineering and ultra trail running, all of which find their way into her writing.

Friday, 6/7

7:30pm

Cowan Center for the Arts

301 Montgomery St, Cowan, TN 37318

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Three Poets, Three Perspectives on Queerness and Religion. Join us for a night that celebrates our poetic heritage in middle Tennessee.

Joshua Garcia’s poetry has appeared in Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Passages North, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the College of Charleston and has received a Stadler Fellowship from Bucknell University and an Emerge—Surface—Be Fellowship from The Poetry Project. He lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York. His latest collection, Pentimento, is available through Black Lawrence Press.

Joey Grisham's work has appeared in Gleam, The Emerson Review, The Write Launch, On the Run, and other places. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Georgia College & State University and teaches at Austin Peay State University. Her poetry collection, Phantoms, is available through Finishing Line Press.

Stephanie Dugger's poems and nonfiction have appeared in Arts & Letters, The Boiler Journal, Calyx, Cider Press Review, Cutthroat, Gulf Stream, and others. She earned an MFA from the University of Wyoming and a PhD from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Her poetry collection, Either Way, You're Done, is available through Sundress Publication

Saturday, 6/8

7pm

HUDUBAM Booktraders

110 Franklin St #101, Clarksville, TN 37040

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Et Al. Poetry Readings are at least one visiting poet, and at least one local poet reading an hour of poetry. Be provoked.

Joshua Garcia (NY)

Joshua Garcia’s debut book of poems, Pentimento, is published by Black Lawrence Press (2024): From an Italian word meaning “to repent,” a pentimento is an instance in painting when traces of an artist’s earlier decisions or mistakes are visible through the final layer(s) of paint. Using modes of confession, ekphrasis, and biblical persona, Pentimento excavates a queerness entangled in one’s faith tradition. Whether seeking to understand his relationship to god, friends, or family, Garcia interrogates questions that arise on the path to self-acceptance. In “Self-Portrait as a Virgin,” a biblical persona asks, “How else are we to take words whole / in our mouths, except as they are given?” Concerned with naming, desire, love, and belonging, Pentimento is a response to a kind of annunciation, the almost supernatural calling of the artist to find words through which the self is free to move.

His poetry has appeared in Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Passages North, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the College of Charleston and has received a Stadler Fellowship from Bucknell University and an Emerge—Surface—Be Fellowship from The Poetry Project. He lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York.

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Kashif Andrew Graham (TN)

Kashif Andrew Graham is a writer and theological librarian who received the 2023 Humanities Tennessee Fellowship in Criticism. He enjoys writing poetry on his collection of vintage typewriters and is at work on a novel about an interracial gay couple living in East Tennessee.

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Kelly Ann Graff (TN)

Kelly Ann Graff (she/her) has been a line cook, a ghost writer, a caretaker, an actress, a delivery driver, a survival skills teacher, a teacher teacher, and now she is yours. Her work has been published in The Salt Weekly, Wussy Magazine, and Bible Belt Queers.

*Sunday, 6/9

*7pm

*Hosted by Coop Gallery at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)
*This event is FREE w/ DONATIONS encouraged
*Please consider supporting our visiting poet by picking up a copy of his debut
*Beers + BYOB

ZINE TOWN(!): Ahead of September's ZINE CITY FEST II, we're hosting a special zine & book arts soiree upstairs at The Packing Plant!

Participating Artist-Makers:
-SALT Weekly
-Ansel Bard

-Ceci Tome
-GHOSTPRINT
-Allison Rethi

4PM-Sunset
Free
All-ages

+ ON-AIR OPEN STUDIO TOURS by 101.5 WXNA FM
+ SUBS by Dicey's Pizza & Tavern
+ DRINKS by Jackalope Brewing Co.

FNPL is celebrating the halfway point to the Zin City Fest II with a special zine & book arts mixer in the community area upstairs at The Packing Plant!

Participating Artist-Makers:

-SALT Weekly

-Cowfemme

-Aaron Zvi Felder

-Dylan Simon/Anachronistic Media Workshop

-Emma Lambiase

-Maddy Underwood

-Oddclaw Press

*ON-AIR OPEN STUDIO TOURS by 101.5 WXNA FM
*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.
*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN

4PM-Sunset
Free
All-ages

(Stay tuned for more info on Zine City Fest II: SEPTEMBER 27-29:

 http://www.instagram.com/zinecityfest )

PO' BOYS & POETS + FNPL present the 2024 NASHVILLE POETRY FEST (!)
SATURDAY, APRIL 27TH

*HEADLINING POETS*

-Lady Flame

-Chet Weise (with Belly Full of Stars)

-Wisdom Way

-Richard Perkins (with The Sea People)

-Virghost

-Jadyn Marshall (Nashville Youth Poet Laureate)

-Jems

-Nathan Spoon (with Infanta Silhouette)

*LOCAL ORGS + POETS*

-SALT Weekly

-Saraya

-Wakeup Comics

-Ashley Wansley

-Third Man Books

-K.Bumpas Art

-April Gloaming Press

-Valenah

-Waxing & Waning Journal

-Ashley Jea The Artist

-The Porch Writers' Collective

-Seven Roots Deep Botanica

-Francis House

-Creatif Moi

-Hot Mess House

-Mbellished Gifts

-Eulalia Books

-Differentbycreation

-Public Zoo Press

-Mink Mobile Flash Tattoo Company

-South Nashville Action People (SNAP)

-Black Mental Health Village

-FNPL Books By Nashville Poets

-Po' Boys & Poets; Nashville

-Southern Word

*ACTIVITIES* (by Turnip Green Creative Reuse)

-Zine/Book + Bookmark Making

-Community Poem

-Erasure/Blackout Poetry

-Magnetic Poetry 

Poetry Portraits by:

-Kat Johnson

-Sam Wilder

-Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum

-Dana Malone

-Alexis 'Oz' Ozden

-Eric  Steineger 

-Caitlin Dee

*FOOD*

Hurts Hot Chicken

*DRINK*

Jackalope Brewing Co.

Humphreys St. Coffee

@ THE PACKING PLANT (507 Hagan St.)

11AM-SUNSET

FREE

ALL AGES

OUTDOORS, PET FRIENDLY

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

SESSION LEADER: Tyquan Morton

My land is/ain’t your land: 

Writers have always found ways to explore and reclaim their relationships to nature and its resources, sometimes using it to address the society’s shortcomings, but most often as a means to imagine a utopia. In this writer’s gym, we will use the brevity and precision of the Haiku and the Tanka to reflect on the natural world around us as a call-to-action and a state of reflection. 

*7PM

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

 *JOURNALS + PENS provided by Turnip Green Creative Reuse  

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*Complimentary SNACKS by DOZEN BAKERY 

*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the APRIL 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.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN 

3PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

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

SESSION LEADER: LM Davenport

Join speculative fiction writer LM Davenport as we experiment with hybrid forms and texts as a way to convey nonhuman voices - an animal consciousness, a landscape, a machine, artificial intelligence, or the unnamable.

*7PM *This event is hosted by COOP GALLERY at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)
*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask*Complimentary SNACKS by DOZEN BAKERY *This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED *ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER 

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the MARCH 2 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 VELLUM PORTRAITS by NARDI APOSTLE 

*LIVE DJ SETS by WXNA

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN 

2PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Writing Through Grief

Grief can hit you out of nowhere. Whether it’s the loss of a family member with whom you had a complicated relationship, a devastating breakup worthy of infinite pints of Ben and Jerry’s in bed, or the realization that you’re getting older and you’re no longer a little kid, it can be hard to process all of the things that come along with such a big, heavy emotion. 

Join us for a generative writing workshop, to write through it, and to share in community in order to help process some of these feelings. 

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

WORKSHOP LEADERS:  Jenna Murray and Kat Johnson

*7PM
*This event is hosted by COOP GALLERY at The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)
*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO WORKSHOP LEADERS

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

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

SESSION LEADER: Krysta Kaczmarzyk

This Writer's Gym will explore the craft, imagery, and practice of puppetry as generative forces.

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

*Mask-mandatory event

*Complimentary MASKS from Mask4Mask

*Complimentary SNACKS by DOZEN BAKERY
*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the FEB 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 DJ SETS by WXNA 

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN  

1PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

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

SESSION LEADER: Simp Goddess

This Writer's Gym will explore the sentiment of boundaries and vulnerability through uncomfortable truths.

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

*Complimentary LIQUID DEATH

*Complimentary SNACKS by DOZEN BAKERY
*This event is FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

Welcome FNPL's first Poet in Petite Residence: Claire Medard (!) We're kicking off her time in Nashville, TN with a poetry soiree, so bring your holiday cheer as we drink, mingle, and immerse in some holiday fervor. We're also making space for poetry too, so BYOP (Bring Your Own Poem, *thanks for the title Educators' Cooperative!) so we can host a party where interactions and introduction slip into diatribes on poetry, poetry in translation, French poetry, French poetry in translation...

Claire Medard is in town working on translating her newest book of poetry (on traveling throughout The U.S. and The South), and acting as librarian a few days each week, so be sure to drop by, check out a book, give her your personal recommendations, chat with her. Stay tuned to the FNPL IG for the updated weekly schedule.

7pm (open library hours all night!)

Free

Coop Gallery (at The Packing Plant)

Snacks by Dozen Bakery

Drinks + BYOB

Live music by Marc Greenspon

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

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

SESSION LEADER: Lydia Yousief

This Writer's Gym will utilize place and memory towards working through complex interpersonal relationships, exploring sensory threads of memories, and attending to the minutiae that alter moments.  

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

*Complimentary LIQUID DEATH sparkling water
*This event is absolutely FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the DEC 2 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 DIGITAL PORTRAITS by APOSTLE SKETCH

*LIVE DJ SETS by WXNA 

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN  

1PM-Sunset

Free

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Come to write. Need not consider yourself a writer. Each Writer's Gym features a unique entrance into the art and practice of composition. Methods and tactics presented in each Gym 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!

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

SESSION LEADER: JR Robles

This Writer's Gym will promote writing via experiments with time and memory, using prose and poetry to open up associative dynamics in translating increments of time and duration.

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

*Complimentary Liquid Death sparkling water
*This event is absolutely FREE W/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the NOV 4 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 RISO SCREEN PRINTING by TUNACATROLL

*LIVE DJ SETS by WXNA 

*DRINKS by JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN  

2PM-Sunset 

Free 

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

The Free Nashville Poetry Library presents: NIGHT OF THE LIQUID DEAD - A scary double feature movie event (!)

SAT, 10/28

7PM Matinee / 9PM Late Show

Front Lawn of The Packing Plant (507 Hagan St.)

Pet-friendly

All-ages

Park Wherever

Firepit

Costumes Encouraged

Complimentary All You Can Drink LIQUID DEATH

Complimentary All You Can Eat POPCORN

(Bring Your Own Popcorn Receptacle!)

Free (donations encouraged!)

Vote for which movies we watch(!)

****SPECIAL THANKS TO NASHVILLE ARTIST TOM SHAW (@corgibeb0p) FOR THE SPOOKY EVENT ART****

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: Alexis Ozden (Oz)

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

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

Big Fiery Gizzard & Little Pigeon's Creativity Land: All ages activities

Featuring:

Poetry Piñatas

Face Painting

Bookmark Making

Magnetic Poetry Wall

Character Meet & Greets 

World's (Possibly) Fastest Growing Library 

& More!

In front of the TN State Museum

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the OCT 7 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.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN  

3PM-Sunset 

Free 

Outdoor event, pet-friendly, all-ages

Zine City Fest: Celebrating limited-edition and independent publishing in Nashville, TN. Featuring handmade zines, artist books, small presses, comics, poetry chapbooks, and more. 

In conjunction with Coop Gallery’s exhibition “Into the Fold: Selections from Nashville’s 1st annual Zine City Fest”.   Festivities (a market, reading, gallery show, anthology, artist talks, presentations, and zine workshops) will take place at The Packing Plant from Friday, September 29th, 2023 to Sunday, October 1st, 2023. With generous support from Artville

FRIDAY: Into The Fold, a group pop-up exhibition, curated from the makers in the Zine City Fest market, on display festival weekend only, and opening reception      party/fest kickoff. Friday, September 29th, 6-9pm.

Featuring work by:

APCOMFORT

Andie Peach 

Ansel Bard 

Cowfemme 

Elise Anderson 

GHOSTPRINT

Gwen Moore 

Maxwell Sebastian 

Meow Meow Pow Pow

*With a special performance of Flay's Anatomy at 8pm!

SATURDAY: Zine City Fest market, a free open-air event with 40+ vendors. All ages, pet-friendly, wheelchair accessible, with live DJ sets by WXNA, food/bev trucks, Saturday, September 30th, 11am-6pm.

SUNDAY: Presentations, PowerPoints, readings, demos, diatribes, and artist talk at Coop Gallery. Sunday, October 1st, 11am-5pm.

Featuring special presentations by:

Jon Sewell (with guest Klyd Watkins)

Anna Elise Anderson

Tori O Campo

Courtney Adair Johnson

APCOMFORT

M Kelley & Adam Nicholson
Richard Perkins & Jerome Spencer

*With a special artist talk ft: Tyler Friend, Robyn Lear, Cecilia Prado, Daniel Pujol, & Austin Reavis 

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 LEADERS: June Adam + Kelly Ann Graff

*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/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

FNPL hosts *Show & Sell* Open-Air Maker's Bazaar for the SEP 2 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.

*PIZZA by DICEY'S PIZZA & TAVERN  

3PM-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:  Mary Liza Hartong

*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/ DONATIONS ENCOURAGED
*ALL PROCEEDS GO TO SESSION LEADER

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!   

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.

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* 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 -

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.

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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.

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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* 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!      

*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!      

*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!      

*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!      

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

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. 

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.~ 

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 

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  

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. 

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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.

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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.

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   

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 AND ALL

A Poetry Marathon Featuring:

Local Poets Joe Nolan, Dan Hoy, Craig Freeman, Jacob Stovall + YOU! 

Sign ups online + at the event, 1- min slots.

Readings start: 12 Noon

Local Musicians Jacob Milstein, Paul Nelson.

Sponsored by TWO BOOTS PIZZA + JACKALOPE BREWING CO.

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)

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

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

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.

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

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/ 

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.

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

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).

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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.

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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.