The Brooklyn Poets Friday Night Open begins with an open mic and culminates in readings by two featured poets. 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).
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.
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 are strongly encouraged to wear masks (regardless of vaccination status) except readers at a safe distance on stage, and we will have masks available. 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.
Next Friday Night Open: October 6
Featured poets: grace (ge) gilbert and Debora Kuan
grace (ge) gilbert is a hybrid writer, poet, and collage artist. they received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022. they are the author of three chapbooks: the closeted diaries: essays (Porkbelly Press, 2022), NOTIFICATIONS IN THE DARK (Antenna Books, 2023) and today is an unholy suite (Barrelhouse, forthcoming 2023). their work can be found in 2023’s Best of the Net anthology, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, Adroit and elsewhere. They teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and they are a 2023 visiting teaching artist at the Poetry Foundation. they are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all.
Debora Kuan is the author of three poetry collections, XING (Saturnalia), Lunch Portraits (Brooklyn Arts Press) and Women on the Moon (Word Works). Her work has appeared or is is forthcoming in Poetry, the New Republic, Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Iowa Review, ZYZZYVA and other magazines. She has worked on the editorial masthead of Poetry magazine and has taught at the 92Y as a teaching artist. She has also written about mental health and the mind-body connection for the National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine. She is currently the poet laureate of Wallingford, CT, where she lives and works remotely as the copywriting manager for the MIT Press.