7-8:30pm [Hybrid] — Open Mic Night with Oliver de la Paz and Diannely Antigua

Bring your poems to Emily Dickinson’s garden! Readers will have 5 minutes each to make us feel “physically as if the top of [our] head[s] were taken off!” (Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 16 August 1870) Featured poets Oliver de la Paz and Diannelly Antigua will follow the open mic. Open mic sign-ups will be handled in advance via a Google Form and a lottery, and selected readers will be notified. Stay tuned for the Google form, which will be posted here.

Register HERE!

Poetry at Fifth Avenue Blooms, Presented by Van Cleef & Arpels in Partnership with the Academy of American Poets

Join us on Sunday, May 19, from 11:40 a.m to 2 p.m. for free hourly poetry performances by Diannely Antigua, Omotara James, and Maya C. Popa at Fifth Avenue Blooms. This annual festival celebrating spring is presented by Van Cleef & Arpels and the Fifth Avenue Association, in partnership with the Academy of American Poets.

Diannely Antigua is the author of the poetry collections Ugly Music (YesYes Books, 2019) and Good Monster (Copper Canyon Press, 2024). She hosts the podcast Bread & Poetry and is currently the Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH.

Omotara James is the author of the poetry collection Song of My Softening (Alice James Books, 2024) and the chapbook Daughter Tongue (Akashic Books, 2018). James’s poems have been featured in NPR’s Morning Edition, Poem-a-Day, and Poetry Daily.

Maya C. Popa is most recently the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (W. W. Norton 2022; Picador, 2023) and the chapbook Dear Life (Smith|Doorstop, 2022). Her newsletter, Poetry Today, is a Substack bestseller and featured publication.

Schedule:

• 11:40 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Maya C. Popa

• 12:40 p.m. to 1 p.m.: Diannely Antigua

• 1:40 p.m. to 2 p.m.: Omotara James

Being Human

Friday, May 10, 2024 at The Music Hall

One of the biggest TEDx events in the country, TEDxPortsmouth is an immersive, full-day event showcasing a diverse lineup of inspiring speakers, rousing artistic performances, local food and more. This 100% volunteer-run annual event is where the Seacoast comes together to connect and explore big ideas — science, the arts, the environment, humanity, entrepreneurship — in a shared experience emphasizing community, conversation, and inspiration. TEDxPortsmouth garners not only a huge local following, but a global reach with speaker videos generating more than a million views (and counting!).

For more information and to buy tickets to this amazing event, click here!

Click HERE for more information!

The University of Maine at Farmington’s celebrated Visiting Writers Series is excited to present current poet laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Diannely Antigua, as the popular program’s fourth reader of the 2023/24 season.

Antigua will read from her work at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, March 7, 2024, in The Landing in the UMF Olsen Student Center. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing with the author.

What To Do With the Memory: Finding a Way In

• REGISTER HERE!

• TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2024

• 5:30 PM 8:30 PM

• USM AND ONLINE PORTLAND (MAP)

A HYBRID Poetry Workshop

ALL LEVELS

One day while walking home from the M train in Brooklyn, I saw a man stealing fruit on the corner of Myrtle Ave and Broadway. In a city of more than 6 million people, nothing that happened was surprising. But ever the poet, I wrote it down in my phone anyway and thought surely this mundane, very New York experience might find its way into a poem. Fast forward to a snowed-in January day, I thought I would use the quiet it would bring to sit down and write a poem. I looked through my phone and saw the line I had recorded months before, “As I watch a man steal fruit on the corner of Myrtle Ave and Broadway.” I wrote it at the top of the blank document, and almost without thought my next line was, “I want to know what to do with the memory.” These seemingly simple lines would then become the entrance into the poem, the Moby Dick of poems, the one I had been trying to write for over a decade about the traumatic event in my youth that shaped my sad girl psyche. I had entered the memory through a side door, one I didn’t know existed. The man stealing fruit was the door. In this workshop, we will explore our very own side doors, the way into the memory that haunts. We will read Catherine Barnett, Sharon Olds, and Marie Howe. This will be a generative space to explore and plant seeds for future poems. 

+ PLEASE NOTE This workshop will occur IN-PERSON AND ONLINE. The week of the workshop, attendees will be emailed the exact location of the class and a zoom link.

Slam Free or Die, NH's longest running poetry slam & open mic series, will be featuring Diannely Antigua at Stark Brewing Company in Manchester, NH at 7PM on November 9, 2023.

Doors open at 7PM. $3-5 entry fee. Open Mic followed by feature.

Headlining Poets Diannely Antigua and Oliver de Paz will read at the Goethe-Institut 2 PM.

Buy tickets HERE!

CourageSpeaks NH uses photography, storytelling, and the arts to empower survivors and their communities to raise their voices against violence.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and to educate and support survivors of sexual violence. It is observed in April.

In celebration of Portsmouth NH 400 please join us for an evening of art, performance, and community featuring the collective imagination and talent of Safe Haven Ballet along with other featured guests and readings including Joanna Kelley, Assistant Mayor, Portsmouth, and Diannely Antigua, Poet Laureate, Portsmouth.

The evening is presented by: HAVEN, Safe Haven Ballet and The Rep and is graciously sponsored by Great Oaks Title Services, LLC.

Disclaimer: Trigger Warning:  These performances are to honor survivors’ stories of sexual assault and human trafficking. This may be triggering to audience members. Trained HAVEN advocates will be available for audience members throughout the performance at any time.

Black Lives Matter Seacoast is proud to present our First Black Excellence Conference as Day 1 of our Black Excellence Weekend! This empowering, one day conference draws talented BIPOC professionals from across different industries by offering access to distinguished speakers and panelists, as well as a trusted environment to network, celebrate excellence among our peers, and share innovative practices to advance our community. This event is open for all to attend!

The conference will close out with a panel titled, “Speak It Into Existence: Expanding Black Youth’s Definition of Excellence in New Hampshire." It will be presented by Diannely Antigua, Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, New Hampshire & NH PANTHER (Plymouth Area Network To Help End Racism).

REGISTER HERE!