Hitting the Road in the Name of Poetry
A motorcycle poetry tour to commemorate a long friendship.
Alright friends, I have some exciting news to share with you.
To kick off National Poetry Month, I’m announcing a summer literary tour which starts on May 16th in Nashville, TN. I’m hitting the road via motorcycle (you heard me) with my dear friend and tour partner of two decades, Derrick C. Brown, for a brand new poetry show called PRETEND IT’S A BOAT. You can find tickets and more information here. If you can’t make it to any of these dates, never fear: we’ll be sharing exclusive behind-the-scenes moments from the road, right here on Substack.
Derrick and I met in 2004 in Southern California at Ugly Mug Café's beloved poetry night, which still takes place today. We quickly bonded over our shared love of poetry, but even more so, our love of performing poetry and the potential of those performances to change the way a person thinks about the genre. When we started doing shows together, we kept this goal in mind to create an unconventional poetry experience aimed at disarming audiences of any preconceived notions that a poetry show is stuffy, boring, and inaccessible. Our shows are hybrids that mix poetry, comedy, and performance art into one ruckus-filled, heart-wrenching, gut-busting evening where anything and everything can—and usually will—happen. People are brought on stage, dance parties break out, sketches are performed, all in the name of having fun and feeling alive—all in the name of poetry.
