July’s Second Saturday Open Mic Poetry Reading
Located at:
Portland Brew East
1921 Eastland Avenue
Nashville, TN 37206
Sign-up at 5:30
Reading starts at 6:00
July Feature Craig Freeman
Craig Freeman, a Nashville native, is a creative writer who weaves introspection into intricate woven rhythmic poetry, essays and short stories. He utilizes his writing to provoke thought and question behavior.
In the summer of 2016, he steered away from the traditional corporate flow to dive deeper into the stream of his creative abilities. “Self expression lives at the core of the human experience; without it we limit life’s offering.”
Soul on Fire.
Life is short
But it’s the longest thing / you’ll ever do /
What will you do / between the line /
Of your time / before night sets on your eyes /
Windsor knot ties / choked the voice
In my mind / blind thoughts
Told me what I ought to see /
Then I smelt the coffee /
Pyramid schemes / stole my dreams /
News screens / say what to think /
I can’t even blink / without clicking on a fake link / So out of sync /
Have to disconnect / from the internet
And introspect / the thoughts of my flesh /
Find faith in every step I take /
Can I find my pace / in this zombie race /
Some days / I can’t recognize my face /
Misplaced masks / followed tasks /
For the cash / as I ash / my burning soul /
For someone else’s high /
How many lives / will it take to see who am I / while I’m alive
Andrea Pilot is the offspring of a fundamentalist preacher and a teacher of languages. She no longer settles for small gods or for others’ definitions of truth, and writes as a means of unflinching self-possession. Andrea still has hope for a world that is compassionate rather than assaultive, innovative rather than staid, and big enough to require more than five senses to experience.
Cynthia Ring has been writing poetry since the age of 14. Cynthia’s poetry rises directly from her unconscious mind. When asked how she came up with this or that image, or scene, she can never really answer the question. She phases into a zone of creativity, reshaping the chaotic blur of surrealism into narrative sequences that can be analyzed and understood. Her work has appeared in Contemporary American Voices, Haggard and Halloo, And/Or and BlazeVOX, among others. In 2017, she published her first book of surreal romantic poetry. 
Hailed as “a spoken word force to be reckoned with” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ami Mattison is the recipient of the 2013 Spoken Word Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Touring professionally since 2002, she has performed her original poetry and stories at universities, theaters, festivals, conferences and art venues around the US and Canada. She is the producer of three spoken word albums, including her latest album, 
Mo Christo is an incredibly talented and humble poet hailing from the land of the yellow bricked path. Author of 
Current host of the 
Ciona Rouse is a poet, living in Nashville, Tenn. She curates many poetry experiences and reading series in the city, including the monthly Lyrical Brew at Barnes & Noble and Writings on the Wall at Atmalogy. Her poetry is featured on WPLN Nashville Public Radio, Nashville Public Television, Matter and Native. Rouse’s poetry chapbook Vantablack will be released this year by Third Man Books.
Honest Lewis is an author, activist, organizer, and polemicist – the Diogenes of the Cumberland River. He is the author of the novel Parasites, has one novel awaiting publication, and is always at work on his next project. Lewis hosts the monthly event the Night of Free Speech and is the editor at 
Here is a poem by Lewis:
Ari Eastman is a spoken word poet, writer, and mental health activist. Her work has been featured in Thought Catalog, The Rising Phoenix Review, and Words Dance Publishing. She currently works full-time as a staff writer for Thought Catalog and has published three poetry collections. She resides in California and enjoys crying to old Buffy The Vampire Slayer episodes.
Henry L. Jones is an award-winning writer and artist who focuses on cultural connections and social issues in both his art and writing. He’s inspired by his heritage and history to show how they relate to contemporary time. This resulted in his activism in the arts and society. Jones is from a long lineage of family members who were activists especially during the Civil Rights Movement. He believes, “I can’t remain silent about what I see. I must do something to promote social change.” He published Run into Blackness: Feeling My Poetic Gumbo (Pneuma Publishing), which was his first book of poetry. It included topics such as racial identity, love, spirituality, community affairs and history.
Emily Joy is a spoken word poet, educator and professional interrupter. She has released two studio albums of spoken word poetry, funded a successful Kickstarter to the tune of $10,000, competed in the 2014 Individual World Poetry Slam, and travels the country performing at schools, churches, festivals, coffee shops, and wherever poetry is heard and enjoyed. Emily is also co-founder of 
Joshua Moore is a 2014 graduate of Eureka College where he studied English Creative Writing and Biology Pre-Medicine, and was a recipient of the Ronald W. Reagan Fellowship. After a brief stint as an oncological researcher at Tuskegee University, Joshua decided to place his med-school aspirations on hold in order to first purse his love of poetry and attain an MFA. A member of the Porch Writers Collective, Joshua is the facilitator of The Porch’s poetry book club as well as director of the poetry on demand project. He currently spends his days caught in the mill of work, writing, and grad-school application prep, daydreaming of his future self; a world traveling poet/professional who also happens to be Black Batman.
Dana Malone has been a regular reader/feature at such Nashville venues as Southern Festival of Books, Tennessee Women’s Theatre Project, Actor’s Bridge/True Stories NSFW, Lyrical Brew, Global Education Center, Davis-Kidd Booksellers, Summer Lights Festival (now Live on the Green), the Owl’s Nest, Mr. Gatti’s, Speer Presents, and the PENCIL Foundation awards ceremony. She currently co-hosts the monthly Writings on the Wall series at Atmalogy and is a participating poet in the Metro Arts Thrive-funded Neighborhoods Project/Poetry on Demand. Dana is a former professor at Tennessee State University and Watkins College of Art, Design & Film and has taught creative writing and composition to students of all ages. She has presented numerous papers on confessional poet Anne Sexton at national and international conferences, where she also was selected to read poetry and fiction. Dana has worked with Gwendolyn Brooks, Al Young, and Lisel Mueller and has participated in the Appalachian Writers workshop.
Brew regular Brian Daly will be unveiling free copies of his new chapbook, “The Brew Poems,” at the November reading. This chap collects poems he’s written and debuted at the Brew over the past couple of years. (“Women of Publix,” “The Afghanistan of You,” “Out of Spoons,” etc.) Attendees are invited to grab a chap and read it at home. Then, if it doesn’t su….I mean, if you think it has merit, come back in the next month or two and give Brew organizer Christine Hall a couple of bucks to help with the expenses of running the show. In other words, it’s a benefit chapbook, OK? Thank you.
“Map…” Michael Alan Pierce is free. The founder of Poetry in the Brew, Map… is a poet, author, and beloved figure in the community. His feature performance comes a few months after Map… celebrated five years with Poetry in the Brew, which is the longest-running spoken word open mic currently held in Nashville. Map…’s work has appeared in numerous publications, including his noted books Praying Poems and Surrender. A teacher and mentor to all who ask it of him, Map… learned the value of both language and community while in prison. He recently completed an 11-year stretch on parole. Map… is free.
Chance Chambers is a Nashville, Tennessee poetry and fiction writer whose work has appeared in the anthologies MuscadineLines: A Southern Anthology and Gathering: Writers of Williamson County. He has also been a quarter-finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope: All-Story & New Century Writers Short Story Competition and a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Poetry Open. In 2015, Metro Arts of Nashville commissioned Chance, along with six other writers/artists, to create a piece inspired by a local public artwork as part of a grant funded by the Bonnaroo Works Fund and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. That poem, “White Noise, Black Sky,” can be heard—along with the pieces by the other commissioned artists—at 
In the poet KHAOS we are met head on with a cross between an old school griot and modern day storytelling
Five years ago, Michael A. Pierce, known as Map…, founded Poetry in the Brew after returning to Nashville to find the venues lacking. At a 2011 memorial tribute to Beatlick Joe Speer, veteran poets agreed to search for a new place. Map… secured Portland Brew East on the 2nd Saturday of the month, the same night as the former Bean Central event. He enlisted the help of fellow poets to build a home for spoken word in Nashville.
Bradley K Meyer writes from Dayton, Ohio. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in decomP, DASH, Toad, Superstition Review, Rust+Moth & elsewhere. He is the author of a chapbook, Hotel Room (Vostok East Press, 2013). He edits Pouch Magazine which lives at 
Drake Moreno is a native of Los Angeles, and a grateful graduate of El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, California. He attended Pomona College and graduated from the University of New Mexico, eventually obtaining an M.A. in Elementary Education, with emphases in Early Childhood Education, Bilingual Education and Technology. He taught students from pre-K to post-graduate, with a six-year sojourn as an organizer for the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
Jon Taylor started out long ago by writing song lyrics, and his poems today demonstrate his roots as a lyricist. All his poems are in four movements like a standard song lyric, and many of them employ “hook lines,” as they are called on Music Row, in the same repetition patterns used since the Tin Pan Alley era. Jon is proud to be the featured reader at Poetry in the Brew for the poetry month of April.
Chance Chambers was a top 100 winner in the Mainstream/Literary Short Story category of Writer’s Digest’s 73rd Annual Writing Competition for his story “Miss October,” which later appeared, along with his poem “Bleachers,” in Muscadine Lines: A Southern Anthology. His short stories have also appeared in the anthologies Gathering: Writers of Williamson County and Fracas: A Collection of Short Friction. Chance has been a quarter-finalist in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope: All-Story & New Century Writers Short Story Competition, a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Poetry Open, and a three-time nominee for the Sensored Starving Artist awards in fiction and poetry. In 2015, Chance was one of seven writers/artists to be commissioned by Metro Arts of Nashville to create a piece inspired by a local public artwork as part of a grant funded by the Bonnaroo Works Fund and The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. That poem, “White Noise, Black Sky,” can be heard—along with the pieces by the other commissioned artists—at Metro Arts’ Explore Nashville Art 
Tricia Schwaab has written since childhood but had never read at a poetry open mic until coming to Tennessee. She has had short plays produced in Nashville and Maryland, and her first full-length play, When the Letter Writers Have All Died, was produced in Baltimore. Her poetry has been published in journals including Calliope and Dead Snakes. She is currently working on a new full-length play about the journey to healing and finding one’s self.
My name is Georgia Caldwell and I was born and raised Yankee with a love for the South. I am a lot of things! But mostly a human being with life experiences that have changed me. A being that is in search of truth, purpose, love, and some peace. Someone that doesn’t mind sharing this life I’ve been given especially if it brings any good to the reader or hearer. It seems for everything I really like to do at times I like to really do the opposite too! I was very inquisitive as a child and still am. I have always been creative and loved the arts, anything with feeling and passion. I come from a family of addiction, abuse, and other dysfunctions and my writings reflect a lot of the pain, loss, confusion, healing, and hope I have experienced and still do. I started writing in February of 2014 after being encouraged by a soul that seemed to see mine so clearly or at least clearer than I did. I had no idea what would happen with these poems but it didn’t matter. The release was spiritually powerful. Some days 4 or 5 would come out of me and it was a purging—it’s the only word that fits the experience. A year was coming and I had over 100 poems. I had read at a few open mic events. My first was Writings on the Wall at Atmalogy, next Night of Free Speech, and then Poetry in the Brew. Everywhere I read I was supported and embraced. My friends and family as well supported and encouraged me. As soon as Calliope Magazine began I had my first published poem there. I was so honored. Since that I have had one more poem published with Calliope and on March 31st, 2015, self-published my first book called Purgings. Purgings Part Two was published October of 2015. I earnestly pray that the Creator will allow these words and purgings to continue. They have blessed me and healed me in a way no other experience has. So this book Purgings is for the children with no voice, the teen that is labeled and misunderstood, and the adult hiding their pain behind some dysfunction.
Chris Whitelaw lives and works in Davidson County, usually performing spoken word pieces throughout the Nashville circuit. Chris has been writing and performing since the age of 12, having his work published in various college newspapers as well as local literary magazines. Aside from his love for literature, poetry and the English language in general, Chris is passionate about finding new ways to become more spiritual each day, a lifestyle that has helped him maintain his sobriety since August of 2015. Much of Chris’ recent work reflects his constant desire for personal growth. A former resident of Phoenix, Arizona, Chris does what he can to support and encourage fellow writers to keep the art of poetry and creative writing alive and well in the Athens of the South.
