literary locales Archives

Here’s the Scoop on Live Poetry Readings

12/15/201802/24/2023
by Hannah Huff

HOW TO FIND AND EXPERIENCE LIVE POETRY EVENTS NEAR YOU LIKE A TRUE MEMBER OF THE LITERATI

So you want to listen to a live poetry reading? Enamored with the printed word, you’ve recently been badgered by the thought that verse might be even better if you hear the words reverberated straight out of the horse’s mouth (and poets do tend to be quite horse-faced).

You dream of sitting rapturously as Frank O’Hara reads “Having a Coke with You” or Gertrude Stein mesmerizes the room with “OBJECTS” from Tender Buttons. Motivated, you realize that you have no idea what a poetry reading is like, let alone how to find one. Do they take place in secret rooms hidden behind bookcase doors? Do cedar incense and absinthe vapors wraith across the stage and infuse the poet with cosmic wisdom? Do the events conclude with a naked dance at sunrise? Who knows?

I do! You’ve come to the right place to figure out how to get to the right places to get some good stanzas in your earholes.

BECAUSE WE ASSOCIATE WHAT WE READ WITH WHERE WE READ IT

A tangible book is more poetic than a digital one because the inescapable clamor of technology lurks behind every e-book’s text. The experience of reading Virginia Woolf’s words on a page will always eclipse reading them on a screen due to the static simplicity of ink on paper. Digital content’s kineticism is a distraction, a white noise that drowns out poetry’s subtler frequencies. With devices, there is always recourse to another entertainment option, but with real books, there is simply the text and the view in front of you. Reading a real, real good book is a poetic experience in and of itself that can be accentuated by the purlieu, so here are the 10 best reading nooks to nestle in and enjoy your printed book.

Here’s the Scoop on Live Poetry Readings

HOW TO FIND AND EXPERIENCE LIVE POETRY EVENTS NEAR YOU LIKE A TRUE MEMBER OF THE LITERATI

The 10 Best Reading Nooks to Enjoy Print Books

BECAUSE WE ASSOCIATE WHAT WE READ WITH WHERE WE READ IT