Please join us for the first of three online Open Mic poetry sessions hosted with Free Verse on Zoom.

On Sunday March 29, April 5, and April 19, we will host Free Verse Open Mic poetry sessions. For each session a “Poets Respond” prompt will be posted on the Wednesday prior to the event. Free Verse poets and the public are invited to write new poems in response to the prompt, and share their poems in an Open Mic format during the hour-long digital zoom meeting the following Sunday. For the first session the prompt is:

Poets Respond: to the theme SOLITARY SOLIDARITY. Write 1-3 poems about your current experience around social distancing and confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic and/or what previous experiences are helping you cope now.

PLEASE NOTE: In light of her recent and unexpected passing, we are dedicating this program to Ms. Jones, Branch Chief at Bronx Probation.

This program is presented as part of the Community Partnership exhibition My Word(s) – These are the tools I trust, which presents text-based art and creative arts programs produced by participants of Free Verse. Initiated in 2012, Free Verse is a poetry workshop, working artists program, publishing house, and magazine that works with people in NYC Department of Probation waiting rooms to turn “waiting time into creative-time.” Poets share experiences with the criminal justice system, family shelters, racial profiling, among other critical social issues. While focused on serving those stuck waiting in probation centers, all workshops, open mics, inclusion in the magazine, and book-making are open to the public. The project has also evolved to offer participants job opportunities as teaching artists as part of a Working Artists Program. 

This program is supported in part by NYC Department of Probation, Poets & Writers, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative.