Poets Party at Equal Grounds
Saturday, December 10, 2-4 p.m.
Join the party! Bring a poem to Just Poets’ end of year poetry bash at Equal Grounds. Just Poets wishes to thank the artists who supported our R-VOICES project to build community through poetry.
Open mic begins at 2 p.m. followed by featured readers to include Just Poets, Roc Bottom Slam Team, Poetry Out Loud winners, Michael Czarnecki of FootHills Publishing, poets from RIT’s Deaf/Def Jam, and our beloved Equal Grounds first Tuesday series emcees, Al Abonado and Jonathan Everitt.
Equal Grounds is friendly grounds for ALL people, and offers great desserts, sandwiches and drinks in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Free food or beverage to first 30 guests, courtesy of Just Poets.
R-VOICES: Building Community through Poetry
Just Poets launched R-VOICES in 2015, an ambitious program to bring together diverse groups of people and build poetic community across Greater Rochester. The series has had great success: over 100 artists help build an audience of nearly 600 in R-VOICES’ first year; in 2016 the turn-out was even stronger— well over 800 people!
"R-Voices 2017" will begin in January when Just Poets sponsor will sponsor Poetry Out Loud, a national recitation contest supported by the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In February, we begin poetry workshops at the Gay Alliance and stage Deaf Meets Def Poetry Jam at RIT’s Lovin’ Cup. Children will read poems at the Poet’s Garden in Highland Park for National Poetry Month in April. In May, we return to St. Ann’s Home for our popular poetry sharing with seniors. In June we invite poets to take part in putting up a wall of words with community activist and artist Shawn Dunwoody. We will read poems again at Wilmot Cancer Center in July. In the fall, Roc Bottom Slam Team and Lu Highsmith will perform.
R-VOICES event at St. Anns Community in 2016.
ROC Bottom Slam Team absolutely rocked the house at this R-VOICES event.
These are our “voices”— high school and college students, children, seniors, African Americans, deaf & hearing impaired, the LGBTQ community, cancer patients and their families—so many poets practicing a range of styles to show the depth of our shared humanity. In the coming year we want to bring all these folks together, so this summer, poets of every description will put up a poetry wall under the direction of muralist and community activist, Shawn Dunwoody.
So please come and help us celebrate what has been another amazing year for our organization and all the people that make it possible!!!