February’s Second Saturday Open Mic Poetry Reading
UPDATE:
Friends of PitB, Portland Brew East will be temporarily closing and thus we must reschedule our January show for February. We apologize for the late notice and wish for all a beautiful gift within this surprise.
Located at:
Portland Brew East
1921 Eastland Avenue
Nashville, TN 37206
Sign-up at 5:30pm
Reading starts at 6:00pm
Each reader on the open mic gets a turn to share one poem in the 1st round, and anyone who chooses may have another turn in the 2nd round.
February Feature MAMA
Spoken word artist, MAMA, formerly known as Persephone, is simply an idea. She stands for everything the soul could long for.
Southern born and raised, she expresses the reality for many not brave enough to share their voice yet. She speaks for the minority, for the ones constantly being counted out. Ignored. Overlooked.
MAMA’s official meeting with spoken word came in 2013 and she has been burning down stages since. A catalyst in her career has been a collection of poets by the name of Po’boys and Poets-Nashville, TN where she currently resides.
MAMA speaks in truth and passion for all willing to listen. Using the universal language of love to fuel her performance, she channels an “aura that comes from the great beyond yet resides as an inner essence”–as a supporter has said to her.
She humbly thanks you for being you today.
Follow MAMA on Instagram @formama._ and on YouTube.
Cassidy Martin was raised all over Nashville. She has been writing since she was 12 and has had her nose stuck in a book all her life. She works at the Nashville Public Library and considers downtown her home. She attends Trevecca Nazarene University pursuing a degree in Communications but is open to other ideas. She likes creating visual and verbal art, but she only sings in the shower. With a mixture of natural leadership, religious optimism, heavy satire, and genuine sincerity, she lives life by pushing through the cracks of the sidewalk with open petals. She hopes to water her fellow humans with liquid courage and life experiences disguised as poetry.
Dominique, better known as Substance, fell in love with creating short poems and quotes at the age of 8. She has explored many writing forms but finds comfort in poetry with no genre or label. You’ll find that her poetry carries the energy and soul of a divine experience. Her mission is to embody the message flowing from her heart in hopes that it will resonate with another’s. Poetry introduced her to the Divine that resides within. Her poetry can be defined as a strong wind or ocean waves gently returning home to shore. 
I was born in Nashville, and raised in Columbia, Tennessee. I became inspired to write from the many things in life. Seeing environments that were just not right, I decided to use spoken words to send messages to change not only the environments, but people’s lives. I’ve been performing the art form known best as Spoken Word since 2015.
Andrew P. Dillon earned his BA from the University of Tennessee, and later graduated in their inaugural MFA class. He was awarded a scholarship to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts workshop in Auvillar, France, and has been nominated for the Best New Poets anthology and the Pushcart Prize. His work is forthcoming or has appeared most recently in Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact, 
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.
