Join us for the Brooklyn Poets Friday Night Open, which begins with an open mic and culminates in readings by two featured poets. Our featured poets on June 28th will be Nicole Alexander & Leah Umansky.
6:00 PM: open mic signup begins
6:30 to 7:45 PM: open mic
8 to 8:30 PM: featured readers
Each reader for the open mic can read for up to a four-minute set. Participants can purchase one of eight tickets in advance to reserve an open mic spot. Once those tickets sell out, all other participants who’d like to read for the open mic can purchase a ticket to sign up at the door on a first-come, first-serve basis. There will be time for about 16–18 readers.
Guests can purchase tickets to attend in person at 144 Montague Street or virtually via Zoom (note: virtual guests cannot read for the open mic). For in-person attendance, advance online ticket sales end at 5 PM on the day of the event. After that, tickets for in-person attendance can be purchased at the door until we reach capacity. Tickets for virtual attendance will be available until 6:30 PM. A Zoom link will be emailed to all ticket holders. Participants are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance for in-person attendance, as there are limited seats. Brooklyn Poets members take $5 off.
Note that by participating in the Friday Night Open, you agree to abide by our code of conduct and COVID-19 policy. All in-person attendees for events are currently required to wear masks (regardless of vaccination status) except readers at a safe distance on stage. We will have masks available. Our full policy can be found at the end of the event description. Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss from our programs any participant found to be in violation of these policies. Thank you for respecting our community.
Closed captions will be available for the event through the Zoom livestream. For more information and to request additional accommodations, contact us at [email protected].
Featured Poets
Nicole Alexander is a poet currently based in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BA in English and textual studies from Syracuse University in 2020. Why I Love Dreaming is her first collection of poems.
Leah Umansky is an educator, curator, collagist and writer in New York City. She is the author of three books of poems, most recently Of Tyrant, out from Word Works now. She is also the author of two chapbooks with Kattywompus Press. Umansky earned her MFA in poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted the COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work can be found in the New York Times, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, USA Today, Poetry and American Poetry Review. She has taught workshops to writers of all ages in such places as the Poetry School (UK), Hudson Valley Writers Center, and Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Visible Ink Program.