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 January 26th will be Jaz Sufi & Chase Berggrun.
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. Effective January 8, 2024, all events attendees except readers at a safe distance on stage are required to wear masks due to the current rise in cases in NYC. 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
Jaz Sufi (she/hers) is a mixed-race, Iranian-American poet and arts educator. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in AGNI, Colorado Review, Black Warrior Review, Birdfeast and elsewhere. She is a National Poetry Slam finalist and has received fellowships from Kundiman, the Watering Hole, and New York University, where she received her MFA as a Goldwater fellow. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Apollo.
Chase Berggrun is a trans woman poet and educator and the author of R E D (Birds LLC, 2018) and the chapbook Somewhere a seagull (After Hours Editions, 2023). Her work has appeared in the Nation, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Poem-A-Day and elsewhere. She received an MFA from New York University and lives in Brooklyn with her many houseplants.