Poets & Pints - 10 Year Anniversary Special

We are pulling out all of the stops for this one. We are bringing in top of the line poets. We are going to have some local presses on hand to sell their books to you. Hey maybe you can get them interested in the book you haven't published yet.

There will be door prizes and poets everywhere.
This show will feature:
Sierra DeMulder-Eyres (coming in from NY)
Tish Jones
Desdamona
Black Pearll Warren
Brett Elizabeth Jenkins (coming in from IN)
Katie Vagnino
We'll try to squeeze in some open mic as well. So bring your poems.

Instagram: @poetsandpints
Facebook: groups/poetsandpints
Website: www.poetsandpints.com

Katie Vagnino - Frequent Guest Host and Performer -
Katie Vagnino is a poet, educator, and writer currently based in Minneapolis, MN. She earned her M.F.A. from Emerson College and has taught creative writing at UW-Eau Claire, the Loft Literary Center, and many other places. Katie has written everything from essays and criticism to opera librettos and exhibition catalogs. Her poems have appeared in more than a dozen literary journals and been featured on public transit. Her debut poetry collection, Imitation Crab, was published by Finishing Line Press in February 2021.

Brett Elizabeth Jenkins / Co-Founder of Poets & Pints (along with David Bayliss) -
Brett Elizabeth Jenkins is the author of BRILLIANT LITTLE BODY (Riot in Your Throat, 2024). She lives and writes in Fort Wayne, Indiana with her cat, Rick Steves. Look for her work in AGNI, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Sun, and elsewhere.

Black Pearll Warren - Frequent Guest Host and Performer -
Tinitha Warren, commonly known as Da Black Pearll, is a Homeownership Development Manager for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, a spoken word artist, poet, comedian and writer living in Minneapolis, MN. She works primarily in housing and community civic engagement. Pearll embraced her love for community and open artistic expression at a young age. As a graduate from Minneapolis public schools, she has rededicated her attention to young adults to improve engagements with disenfranchised and privileged audiences alike. Pearll answers their questions about equity, wealth development, race, language, violence, and cultural identity, using her genres as a non-threatening tailored expressive art form and educational tool.

Desdamona -

Desdamona is an international, award winning poet & hip hop artist. She has traveled the US & abroad touring and leading workshops, working in over 300 schools and prisons. She co-founded B-Girl Be, a celebration of women in Hip Hop, that took place in Minneapolis between 2005-2011. Des has been featured on 8 French releases and has toured France as well as collaborating with international Grammy award winners, Sly & Robbie. In 2014, Des was chosen to feature in a national "Back to School" campaign for Kmart, as a rapping lunch lady.
She’s created commissioned work for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s as well as lyrics for the WNBA Detroit Shock theme song. Desdamona’s 2016 release No Man’s Land features an all woman cast of singers, poets and emcees from the Twin Cities. Des currently works as the Poetry Ambassador for TruArtSpeaks and leads the Re-Verb Open Mic at Flava Cafe in St. Paul.

Tish Jones -

Tish Jones is a poet, emcee, and Hip Hop Theater artist from Saint Paul, MN, with a deep and resounding love for Black people. Her work explores themes of Black love, liberation, politics, and Afro-Futurism. She has exhibited her work throughout the United States and abroad as a public performance artist committed to thepower of narrative change through the arts.

Her writing can be found in We Are Meant to Rise (University of Minnesota Press), A Moment of Silence (TruRuts and The Playwrights Center), the Minnesota Humanities Center’s anthology entitled, Blues Vision:African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press) and more.

Currently serving as a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Tish is grateful to have been supported through numerous grants, fellowships, and awards throughout her career. That generous support has allowed her to excavate the kind of stories that chart new worlds. She also serves as the Founding Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, and for all of it, she is eternally grateful.

Sierra DeMulder-Eyres -

Sierra DeMulder is the author of five collections of poetry (Ephemera, The Bones Below, New Shoes on a Dead Horse, We Slept Here, Today Means Amen) and the co-host of the relationship advice podcast Just Break Up. She lives in Albany, NY with her wife and daughter.

Tony Plocido - Host/Curator of Poets & Pints

Tony Plocido is Twin Cities poet, who has four books out there:

Sucker Punch Wisdom (Spartan Press, 2012, Out of Print but available on Kindle)
Aging and Other Side Projects (Self-published, 2016)
Felt this So Many Times (Spartan Press, 2018)
The Conflict that Creates (Luchador Press, 2021)

He was asked to take over as the host/curator of Poets & Pints, by David Bayliss, in 2019. From, there he reached out to The League of MN Poets and asked to have the show affiliated with them and their local chapter, Cracked Walnut. He kept the show going, virtually through the pandemic, and was very happy to go live again in 2021.
You can find Tony's work at: www.mentalvalley.com

Parking Lot at Dunwoody Blvd and Aldrich Ave. N.

Host or Publisher Tony Plocido and Cracked Walnut