Tonight: Inside Out Tours presents the Greenlight Poetry Slam!

Thursday, June 24, 8:00- 9:00 PM
Inside Out Tours presents the Greenlight Poetry Slam
Hosted by Mo Beasley

Award-winning Brooklyn-based company Inside Out Tours leads visitors and local residents to great cultural experiences "off the beaten path" in Brooklyn's vibrant and diverse neighborhoods. Inside Out not only leads you to exciting destinations, they also create destinations, including Greenlight’s new poetry slam series on the last Thursday of every month this summer. Join us to hear some great performance poets, and sign up to take the stage and compete in the slam for prizes and glory.

Host Mo Beasley is an award-winning Brooklyn performance poet, spoken word artist, published playwright, educator, and recording artist. He has featured at legendary stages from the Blue Note to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and teaches performance poetry to high school students. The slam is open to performers of all ages and will follow standard three-round rules; signup begins at 7:30. The first prize is a free tour with Inside Out, and runners-up will receive poetry books from Greenlight Bookstore.

(As a special aside: Inside Out Tours won the Brooklyn Business Library’s Power Up! Award for the best Brooklyn-based business plan submitted in 2009 – this is the same award Greenlight Bookstore won in 2007. We’re proud to partner with our fellow Brooklyn entrepreneurs to bring this new spoken word series to the borough, and to help spread the word about Inside Out Tours as a new Brooklyn based business.)

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Tonight: Tina Chang and the poets of Ronald Edmonds Middle School!

Friday, April 23, 7:30 PM
Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang hosts the poets of Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (MS113)

Award-winning poet Tina Chang was recently named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn by Borough President Marty Markowitz. One of Chang’s initiatives as Laureate is the Adopt-A-Poet Project, in which published poets bring the craft and appreciation of poetry into the borough’s middle schools. Chang launches the project this evening with a reading by the students of Fort Greene’s own Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (MS 113), who have been working with her on their own poems this month. Join us to hear from Brooklyn’s budding poetic talents, hosted by our own poet laureate.
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Poetry Month in Fort Greene

April has been celebrated as National Poetry Month in the U.S. since 1996. Some years, the weather inevitably brings to mind T. S. Eliot's declaration about "the cruelest month." But with the welcome sunshine in Brooklyn so far this April, we all feel ready, in James Wright's words, to "break / into blossom."

Fort Greene has a pretty impressive poetic pedigree, with residents from Walt Whitman and Marianne Moore to Colin Channer and Irving Feldman (whom I quoted in my very first post on this blog; he kindly emailed later to let me know he went to school at Brooklyn Tech and has fond memories of the neighborhood.)

There's plenty of National Poetry Month action going on in the neighborhood. As our trusty New York Times blog The Local points out, the Fort Greene Park Conservancy is holding an open mic at the Richard Wright bench at the top of the park, at 1 p.m. every Saturday in April.

And at Greenlight, we're celebrating Poetry Month in a number of ways. First thing in our front door, you'll see our Poetry Month table, with wonderful collections from masters like Elizabeth Alexandar, Anne Carson, Tina Chang, Billy Collins, Kay Ryan, Tupac Shakur, Dylan Thomas, Kevin Young, and others. The selection changes from week to week, and you'll find lots more in our poetry section.

And our events calendar reflects an emphasis on poetry this month as well. We're emphasizing the performative aspects of the art, poetry's potential to inspire young people, and our own local poetic talent -- but there's sure to be something for everyone. Here are a few highlights -- we hope you'll join us to share the joy of poetry.
- Jessica


Friday, April 23, 7:30 PM
Brooklyn Poet Laureate Tina Chang hosts the poets of Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (MS113)
Award-winning poet Tina Chang was recently named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn by Borough President Marty Markowitz. One of Chang’s initiatives as Laureate is the Adopt-A-Poet Project, in which published poets bring the craft and appreciation of poetry into the borough’s middle schools. Chang launches the project this evening with a reading by the students of Fort Greene’s own Ronald Edmonds Learning Center (MS 113), who have been working with her on their own poems this month. Join us to hear from Brooklyn’s budding poetic talents, hosted by our own poet laureate.
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Sunday, April 25, 7:30 PM
Akashic Books presents Poets of the Calabash Festival reading from So Much things to Say: 100 Calabash Poets
Featuring poets Amiri Baraka, Colin Channer, Justine Henzell, Willie Perdomo, Aracelis Girmay, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Everton Sylvester, Linda Susan Jackson, Terese Svoboda, Meena Alexander, Ishion Hutchinson & Valynza Mort
Introduction by Paul Holdengraber, Director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library
The Calabash International Literary Festival, which takes place in Jamaica each May, is a world-class three-day festival of readings and music that draws outstanding poets from all over the world, and especially from the Caribbean diaspora. Brooklyn independent publisher Akashic Books has been a long-time supporter of Calabash, and now presents So Much Things to Say: 100 Calabash Poets, an anthology of poets who have read at the festival over the years, with all profits from the sale of the book to be donated to Calabash. Greenlight is proud to host some of those poets tonight, representing our own Brooklyn poetry culture and the broad range of talents who are drawn to Calabash. Colin Channer will start things off with some appropriate music, and the NYPL's own Paul Holdengraber will introduce the evening.
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Friday, April 30, 7:00 PM
Youth Open Mic for High School and College Performance Poets
Hosted by Mo Beasley
High school and college students are invited to show off their slammin’ poetic skills at Greenlight Bookstore’s first ever open mic night! Host Mo Beasley is an award-winning Brooklyn performance poet, spoken word artist, published playwright, educator, and recording artist. He has featured at legendary stages from the Blue Note to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and teaches performance poetry to high school students. Beasley will MC this evening’s open mic, which is open ONLY to performances by poets from 9th grade to college seniors, though all ages are invited to attend. Signup for the open mic begins at 7:00 PM, and performances will begin at 7:30.
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