Waterbean Poetry Night Featuring Poets Gray LEE + Narya Rose DECKARD!
Schedule
Wed Jan 28 2026 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Waterbean Coffee #2 - Huntersville | Huntersville, NC
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Hello, Poets & Friends!Happy New Year! Please join me at Waterbean Poetry Night on JAN 28 when I’ll kick off the 2026 readings with featured poets GRAY LEE + NARYA ROSE DECKARD!
Poet Bios:
••• Grayson “Gray” Lee (they/them), a native of Hickory, North Carolina, is an English and Creative Writing major at Lenoir-Rhyne University. A queer poet from Appalachia, Lee explores the influence of religious ideals on identity, expression, and lived experience. Through their work, Lee hopes to connect with and inspire other emerging writers and queer youth to understand that thriving is supremely better than merely surviving. Their chapbook, Becoming, was released by Redhawk Publications in Fall 2025, and is a fundraiser for OUTright Youth of Catawba Valley. Find Gray Lee on Instagram at @graylinespoetry.
••• Narya Rose Deckard, winner of the 2025 Susan Meyers Poetry Fellowship Award, is the author of Wolfcraft, which won the 2024 Broken Tribe Press MFA Award. She lives in Valdese, NC with her husband, cats, dog, and chickens. She teaches English and creative writing at Lenoir-Rhyne University where she also received her MFA. Narya’s poetry and prose is published in anthologies to include Kakalak, and Had I a Dove: Appalachian Poets on the Helene Floods, plus in journals including Vroom Lit Magazine, Tiny Seed Journal, Wingless Dreamer, The Dead Mule School, and heartwood literary magazine. Find more info at naryawithwings.com.
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General Details:
7:00–9:00 PM
WEDNESDAY• 28 JANUARY 2026
Waterbean Coffee - Huntersville
9705 Sam Furr Rd., Ste. A
Huntersville, NC 28078
in NorthCross Shopping Center
(corner of NC-73 & US-21)
We’ll begin at 7:00 sharp & have a hard stop at 8:50 (venue closes at 9:00).
Following the featured program & a break for book sales/signings, stick around to enjoy the OPEN MIC!
Open Mic Guidelines:
Please arrive 6:30–6:45 to sign up in person, as spots are limited & go quickly. No holds. Each open mic reader has up to 5 minutes (at host’s discretion) on stage to share 1–2 one-page poems. If you sign up to read, please stay to hear & support your fellow poets.
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The TINY TABLETOP LIBRARY, dedicated in Memory of Poet Mike James (1970–2023), offers FREE, generously donated poetry (books, chapbooks, journals, & anthologies) for you to peruse, take home, enjoy, & share when you’re done. Poetry donations are welcomed & appreciated. See pinned post on our Facebook page for full details.
Please mark yourself GOING to this EVENT if you’ll attend.
Kindly support the venue & baristas, & featured poets if you can.
As your host, my MISSION is to foster diversity, kindness, community, & peace through poetry.
Event is FREE & open to the public, part of Waterbean Poetry's monthly reading series that offers an INCLUSIVE, SAFE SPACE for all poets & friends of poetry.
Peace & poetry for all,
Leslie
Leslie M. Rupracht
Host/Co-founder • Ally • Community Builder
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Where is it happening?
Waterbean Coffee #2 - Huntersville, 9705 Sam Furr Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078-5046, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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