Featured Reader at 7PM followed by an open mic session.
Held via zoom| check out our events page on Facebook to get the zoom link for each session. Cozy up on your couch, brew a hot beverage, and enjoy the comfort and camaraderie of Poets in Play.

Sep

08

Teresa Mei Chuc

Prompt: “In Praise of Emptiness”-“I am looking for what’s not there: that space we look through…”

Former Poet Laureate of Altadena, California (2018 to 2020), Teresa Mei Chuc is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012),Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018). She was born in Saigon, Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. under political asylum with her mother and brother shortly after the Vietnam War while her father remained in a Vietcong “reeducation” camp for nine years. Teresa is a graduate of the Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing program (Poetry) at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and teaches literature and writing at a public high school in Los Angeles.

Tuesday, September 08, 2020, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm
Nov

10

Shaq "A.O.R." Payne

Shaq “A.O.R” Payne is a poet based out of Rochester NY. Getting his start in slam he has competed nationally and internationally as a youth and an adult. He coached Rochester’s first adult national team and served as creative director and then Co-Director of Roc Bottom Slam team. Since Roc Bottom he has focused on building his production management company “Starvin Artist” where he serves as a consultant for business and individual project management.

Tuesday, November 10, 2020, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm
Jan

05

Dave Muffley

Prompt: “I knew that youth was never meant to last.”

Dave Muffley is a formalist poet. His compelling poetry of war and peace has been described as critically comparable with that of Ambrose Bierce and Wilfred Owen. Although Dave has been writing verse since 1970, he has only recently begun releasing his work for publication. His poems have appeared and been selected for Honorable Mention in several periodicals and anthologies promoting war poets and veterans’ issues.

Through the VA’s Disabled Veterans Rehabilitation Program, Dave earned a BA is Mass Communication/Journalism. He believes that like journalists, poets and artists have a duty to be the watchdogs of society. Dave defines art as that which conveys emotion from the artist to the audience; that art, generally, is the image of emotion, that literature is art’s most explicit medium, and that poetry is literature’s purest art form. It is his intent and purpose to convey emotion in his poems.

Tuesday, January 05, 2021, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm
Mar

02

Tim Collins

Prompt: “She was like a held breath that you wouldn’t want to release.”

Tim Collins has been working as an actor, writer, solo performer, and educator since 2000 and has performed his solo shows for more than 1,000,000 audience members nation wide. Locally he has partnered with activist and educator Kim Stanton a number of times, utilizing grant support from the Triangle Fund and the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning to create programming for teens in Chemung County, NY. He has performed his violence prevention shows at schools, colleges, and military bases across the country. He has also been published in PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS, on Indie Theater Now, and has appeared on ABC News, YNN News, TWC News, and NPR.

Tuesday, March 02, 2021, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm
May

11

David Michael Nixon

Prompt: “Run to the open field of morning.”

David Michael Nixon has had four poetry chapbooks and two full-length poetry books published. Stephen Forgives the Stones: New and Selected Poems (FootHills Publishing, 2018) is his latest book. His poems have appeared in many periodicals and anthologies, including Yankee, Kayak, HazMat Review, Waterways, Home Planet News, Potato Eyes, and Le Mot Juste. He has given many poetry readings, and performed as an a cappella singer.

David lives in Rochester, New York (Hilton, New York during the pandemic).

Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm
Jul

06

Maril Nowak

Prompt: “Who will wave back to the wide-eyed child?”

Maril Nowak’s award-winning poetry has been given a broadside printing, publication in many small press magazines, a dramatic reading by professional actors, and performed in an original musical composition by Cleveland Composers’ Guild for chamber orchestra with dramatic reading. A current chapbook under the working title of Voices Passed is underway.

Tuesday, July 06, 2021, 7:00 pm—9:00 pm