Admission is free, but it's worth noting that Dottie's will have fabulous desserts and fancy beverages available for purchase!

Story Slam? - A story slam is a storytelling competition open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the event’s theme. Stories are scored by volunteer judges from the audience. Story slams are fast paced and high spirited with widely ranging responses to the theme. For January the theme is "Road Trip." Seating is limited: first come, first served

In celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. day, WordXWord invites poets to add their voices in reflection on the life and legacy of, as well as the causes championed by, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. .

More than a math exercise, the 2020 Census will have a profound impact on everything in America, but who's counting and who gets counted. Poets are asked to leave no stone unturned.

In the spirit of the Berkshire Museum's exhibition She Shapes History, poets give voice to the often overlooked, unvoiced, ways that women have and continue to move the world forward.

Story Slam? - A story slam is a storytelling competition open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the event’s theme. Stories are scored by volunteer judges from the audience. Story slams are fast paced and high spirited with widely ranging responses to the theme. For February the theme is "Second Chance" Seating is limited: first come, first served

Poets are asked to reflect on education in America, from public education to home school; k-12 to college; or the lessons that life drops on us. In the classroom, out of the classroom, or in the "real" world. The good, the bad or the ugly. Cautionary tales and inspirational stories.
February marks the second anniversary of Poets Creating Conversation. To celebrate, we're going to return to where it all began - with Education in America. The first time around, our event followed the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL Appropriately, poets circled around guns and the conversation about guns in school settings, arming teachers, etc. There's no guarantee, but perhaps this time around, we're hoping that education returns to the center of our circle.

Poets Creating Conversation challenges poets to circle loosely around a theme or issue to create a broad, multi-dimensional “conversation” between poems, poets, and audience.

Full Moon Alert!!!!

Given the current situation, if you’re not howling, you must be sleepwalking. Thursday, May 7 is a full moon. Join us online as poets take it out on the universe.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

We've all been there. All dressed up with nowhere to go? 5 minute, true stories. You be the judge.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Poets have been talking in boxes for some while, let's open some and see what comes out.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

June 14 is Flag Day in the USA. Which led us to ask, why not offer June 15 as an opportunity for poets to let their Freak Flag fly in celebration of difference and how difference can make our social fabric stronger. Because if not now, when?

"Now if 6 turned out to be 9,
I don't mind, I don't mind,
Alright, if all the hippies cut off all their hair,
I don't care, I don't care.
Dig, 'cos I got my own world to live through
And I ain't gonna copy you . . ."

". . . They're hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
But I'm gonna wave my freak flag high, high.
Wave on, wave on"
- Jimi Hendrix, If 6 Was 9

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Still reeling from Covid; an extended period of social distancing; high unemployment numbers; the struggles of small businesses at the heart of our community; our collective outrage at the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more broadly the violent legacy of racism - just in time for Independence Day, let's take a bite out of reality, chew it into poetry, and spit it out.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Whether in protest, purgation, or celebration, as Martha (and the Vandellas) proclaimed, “Summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the street.” Poets are invited to fire up the grill and make it rain.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

For “crying out loud” there’s a lot of deflection and misdirection hanging in the air. Poets uncloak, untangle, and unshirk to lay it on the line.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Poets perform pieces in response to imagined sculptures on the grounds of The Mount. Tours start at 5, 5:30, 6, & 6:30P. Audience members will be required to wear face coverings and maintain appropriate social distance as they move along the course of the performance.

This has been the oddest of summers. Let's hope it's not the last. In either case, we're open to hear what poets have to say about it.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Collaborative pieces wrestle their way through a forest of zoom.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Stories hit the headline, you hit the street with signs, sign petitions, put a sign on your lawn, pin a button to your lapel, make a donation - say you will never forget. But then a next shiny object / outrage begs our attention and you move on letting the loss or injustice slip further and further from your mind. We’re asking poets to pause to excavate, reexamine, remember names before moving on, before turning the page.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Hang onto your hat as poets make art from conspiracies and denials.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

In this rodeo, metaphors and analogies are the least of our worries.

New normal, old normal, abnormal. For Compared To What, WordXWord invites poets to stand knee deep in a sea of anomie and make some sense. In this rodeo, metaphors and analogies are the least of our worries.

"Love the lie and lie the love
Hangin' on, with a push and shove
Possession is the motivation
That is hangin' up the whole damn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut
Tryin' to make it real but compared to what?"

- (From Compared To What (1966), lyrics by Gene McDaniels.)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Poets create a smorgasbord out of bruised fruit, green tomatoes, and sour grapes. With tiny bite-sized pieces bento-boxed into single servings, poetry may never recover.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Poets cut through our collective vertigo to wrestle with climate change and environmental justice as we feel our way to a new post-pandemic normal.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Stories and poems from aching hearts, a kick in the gut, sinking souls, exhausted bodies, survival, and sourdough.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Poets tackle the call-and-response.

In music, call-and-response is a compositional technique that works similarly to a conversation. In other contexts, it refers to rapid, spontaneous verbal and nonverbal interactions between speaker and listener. In its simplest form, “no justice / no peace” is an example.

We've a thrown out the challenge and asked poets to sort it out - together or alone; or alone to gather.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!

Everyone Is Welcome!

It's a Potluck! Poets are invited to bring a delicious poem to share. Holiday attire if you’re feeling the spirit.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the live event. New to Zoom? It's free and easy. You do not have to have a camera and/or microphone on your device to watch/listen, but it might be more fun if you do! Poets do like to see an audience!