Pop up Poetry Reading ft. Raina Jane, Ember Matthews, & Eric Sirota

Come out on Monday, March 23rd, at 6:30pm for a poetry showcase reading featuring Raina Jane, Ember Matthews, and Eric Sirota!

This show will be at Marino Adriatic Cafe (4129 SE Division St).

Doors will open at 6:00pm, show at 6:30pm. Free entry with a suggestion of a $10 donation.

There will be a short showcase at the top of the show of local poets Jane Belinda, jared Cetz, Daio, Julia Gaskill, Stephen Meads, and Jae Nichelle.

We hope to see you all there!!

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Raina Jane is a spoken word poet who writes around topics of her trans experience, identity, and love. She has been writing and performing since October 2022. Raina has performed and competed in her home state Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Missouri, Nevada, and Oregon! She hopes to combat transphobia and provide positive representation for trans women by sharing her struggles since coming out in late 2022. You can find Raina at @rainajanepoetry on instagram, where she has videos of her performances as well as some of her written works!

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Ember Matthews (she/they) is a comically anxious queer poet, professional woodworker, multi-time winner of the Kansas City Poetry Slam, and multi time finalist of the Kansas City Grand Slam. Ember is a member of the Fountain City Poetry Slam team, and has competed in Portland, Albuquerque, and Omaha as well as her home town. She placed second at the 2025 Rite of Joy slam in KC. She is featured in the Bigfoot anthology series, as well as Volumes 1 and 2 of the Fountain City Slam Team Chapbook. Ember is on enough Medic*tion to sedate a horse, and her unique style of confessional absurdity covers a wide variety of topics, including mental illness, gender identity, scientific thought experiments, alien life, and coffee. Should you find yourself in Kansas City, you can find her at No Divide KC most Wednesdays where she is the slam master for Poetic Undergrounds Fountain city poetry slam . You can follow her on Instagram at emeralds_for_ears.

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Eric Sirota is a poet, rapper, and public interest lawyer living in Chicago. His first full length book, The Rent EATS First, was published by Button Poetry in October 2024. He recently received a congressional commendation for his housing advocacy work. You can’t miss him. He’s the tallest Jew for miles.

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