Doors at 6:30 pm, Reading at 7 pm

Featured Poet: Kristine Esser Slentz

Open mic prompt: Write a poem on how technology affects a close relationship.

Read a poem or short piece that is 317 words maximum, and challenge yourself to share new work!

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About the Featured Poet:

Kristine Esser Slentz is a queer writer of Maltese descent, raised in the Chicagoland area. A cult escapee and GED holder, she is the author of EXHIBIT: an amended woman, depose (FlowerSong Press, 2021, 2024) and the forthcoming collection face-to-faces (ThirtyWest Publishing House, 2026). Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Saturday Evening Post, TriQuarterly, Five Points, TEDx, and elsewhere. Kristine is the co-founder, organizer, and host of Adverse Abstraction, a monthly experimental artist series in New York City’s East Village. She also produces and performs in Verse & Vision, a stage production currently in a micro-residency at NYC’s Dada and headed for an upcoming run at the IndyFringe Festival. Follow her art on Substack at Carnations & Car Crashes.

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NIGHTJAR creates an inclusive space for all by bringing together spoken-word performers and page-based poets writing in narrative, lyric, and experimental forms. Every third Wednesday (this month is an exception, as it’s on the second Wednesday), C.S. Carrier and Michelle Niemann host a reading and invite audience members to share their own poetic responses.