—EMDASH DECEMBER
—emdash is a community calendar for new york city poetry. even when it's cold.
Poetry Events for December
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note - this is a working calendar. check events before you go, we will have flyers collected under the monthly highlights on our instagram @emdashnyc !
Monday, December 1, 7:30 PM — Anthony Thomas Lombardi, Daniella Toosie-Watson, and Bruce Whitacre with KGB Monday Night Poetry — Reading series at KGB Bar — two drink minimum
Wednesday, December 3, 7 PM — Audrey Snow Matzke, Beckett Rosset, Drew Rivera, Guy Dess, Justin Kamp, Matilda Lin Berke, Tom Watters, and Will Chancellor with The Whole Sick Reading — Reading series at 49 Monroe St. — free
Wednesday, December 3, 7 PM — Malvika Jolly, Grace MacNair, Rennie Ament, and Ariel Yelen with Harvest — Reading series at Accent Sisters — pay what you want
Wednesday, December 3, 8 PM — Rachael Guynn Wilson, Rachel Levitsky, Ayaz Muratoglu, Jimin Seo, Lytle Shaw, Claire Marie Stancek, and Colin Vanderburg with the Poetry Project — Book launch at St. Mark’s Church — 10
Thursday, December 4, 6 PM — Austin Alexis, Jennifer Blowdryer, Kim Brandon, Daniel Carter, Matthew Hupert, Ron Kolm, Nancy Mercado, Bonafide Rojas, Sparrow and Truffles, and Steve Wishnia with Keep the Light! with Eve Packer — Reading series at Hudson Park Library — free
Thursday, December 4, 7 PM — Aiyana Ishmael, Iman Hariri-kia, Ira Madison III, Ray Lipstein, Rose Dommu, and Swati Sudarsan with Limousine — Reading series at 4 Berry St RSVP — 5
Thursday, December 4, 7 PM — Will Augerot, Aamir Azhar, Alan Gilbert, Theresa Lin, Riley Mac, and Ellie Parker with Poetry is Famous — Reading series at Topos Too — free
Thursday, December 4, 7 PM — Joy Harjo, Tracy K. Smith, and Krista Tippett with On Being — Reading and talk at Symphony Space — 20
Thursday, December 4, 7 PM — Kate Colby, Henry Goldkamp, Ryan Skrabalak, and Jace Brittain w/ music by Crescent City Achoo — Reading at Unnameable Books — free
Thursday, December 4, 8 PM — Luke Seder, A.O. Gerber, Megan Milks, and Andréa Becker with Perfume — Reading series at Metropolitan Bar — free
Thursday, December 4, 8:30 PM — ILOV GRATE, Julep de Soie, and Hongru with Burlesque & Poetry Night — Reading at Accent Sisters — 20
Friday, December 5, 6:30 PM — Brooklyn Poets Workshop Showcase — Reading at 144 Montague St. — free
Friday, December 5, 6:30 PM — Chenxin Jiang and Stine An — Reading at Accent Sisters — free
Friday, December 5, 7:30 PM — Terrence Arjoon, Monica de la Torre, Tilghman Goldsborough, Aristilde Kirby, and Theadora Walsh — Book launch at Night Club 101 — free
Saturday, December 6, 1 PM — Poetry in the Picture with Leah Umansky — Workshop at Stephen A. Schwarzman Building — free
Saturday, December 6, 5 PM — Nada Gordon and Kit Robinson with Segue — Reading series at Artists Space (11 Cortlandt Alley) — 5
Saturday, December 6, 6 PM — Other Tongue Opening reception and poetry reading — Reading at Accent Sisters — free with RSVP
Saturday, December 6, 7 PM — Kathy Wu, Abdu Mongo Ali, Kimberly Alidio, Alison Arteaga Argumendo, and Basalt Hsu — Book launch at Wendy’s Subway — free
Sunday, December 7, 7 PM — Helen Chen, Brooke Finegold, and Kaylee Jeong with Sunstroke Press — Reading and open mic at Selva — Tickets
Sunday, December 7, 8 PM — Niloufar Talebi, Roz Shayan Naimi, and Roger Sedarat with Persian Poetry in Translation — Reading at Dada Bar — free
Monday, December 8, 8 PM — Tim Blake Nelson, Angela Flournoy, Alejandro Varela, Jennifer Sears, Megan Cummins, and Wah-Ming Chang with Franklin Park Reading Series — Reading series at Franklin Park — free
Tuesday, December 9, 7 PM — How to Write the Next World and Surprise Yourself with John Yau and Accent Sisters — Workshop at Online RSVP — 20
Tuesday, December 9, 7 PM — Alex Cuff, Marisa Mandabach, Yomalis Rosario, and Nzingha Hazelton with Dada Literary Cafe — Reading series at Dada Bar — free
Tuesday, December 9, 8:30 PM — Mohammed Zenia, Charlie Markbreiter, Katie Lane, Neon Mashurov, and Samantha Hines with O.K. Fox — Reading series at Dada Bar — free
Wednesday, December 10, 4:30 PM — Selections from Paul Celans Poppy & Memory — Reading at Jefferson Market Library — free
Wednesday, December 10, 5 PM — Nina Kossman — Book launch at Yorkville Library — free
Wednesday, December 10, 6:30 PM — Carey Salerno, Nicole Sealey, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Andrés Cerpa, and Joan Larkin — Reading at P&T Knitwear — 7
Saturday, December 13, 3 PM — 付秋萌, 王寅 — Book launch at Accent Sisters — free
Saturday, December 13, 6 PM — Hala Alyan, Cynthia Cruz, Carl Phillips, and Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Reading at Poets House — free
Saturday, December 13, 7 PM — Strings & Stanzas — Open mic at Dear Friend Books — free with RSVP
Sunday, December 14, 5 PM — Michael Gottlieb and Susan Landers with Segue — Reading series at Artists Space (11 Cortlandt Alley) — 5
Sunday, December 14, 5 PM — Camille U. Adams, Wah-Ming Chang, Quincy Scott Jones, and Jennifer Sears with Sunday Salon — Reading series at Von Bar — free
Sunday, December 14, 8 PM — Ryan D. Petersen, K, Mariah Kreutter, Nik Slackman, Donny Morrison, and Emily Woods with Punisher — Reading series at International Bar — free
Tuesday, December 16, 7 PM — Alpha Beta Blah — Open mic at The Asian American Writers’ Workshop — free
Tuesday, December 16, 8 PM — Josh Boardman, Ry Cook, Xochitl Gonzalez, and Anne-E Wood with Ditmas Lit — Reading series at Urbane Arts Club — free
Wednesday, December 17, 6:30 PM — Out of the Box Multilingual Poetry with Dima Pevzner, Igar Satonovsky, and Anton Yakovlev — Reading series at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library — free
Wednesday, December 17, 7 PM — TBA with Harvest — Reading series at Accent Sisters — 10
Friday, December 19, 5:30 PM — SNFL Poetry Open Mic — Open mic at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library — free
Friday, December 19, 7:30 PM — No-Pen Mic with Ed Lin — Open mic at Yu & Me Books — free
Saturday, December 20, 3:30 PM — Poets Out Loud: An LGBTQ+ Writing Group — Workshop at Poets House — free
Saturday, December 20, 5 PM — Robert Fitterman and Theodore Harris with Segue — Reading series at Artists Space (11 Cortlandt Alley) — 5
Tuesday, December 30, 7 PM — Chariot Wish, Maya Martinez, Mohamed Zenia, Rachelle Rahmé, Theo Ellin Ballew, Sol Cabrini and Sahar Khraibani with Wonder Press — Reading series at Seventh Heaven — free
Tuesday, December 30, 8 PM — Most Hated Poets — Open mic at Dada Bar — free
missing your event? submit events here.
Where we’ve been
there is something really special about growing familiar with a poem by a poet through an oral setting. last month i had the honor of getting to hear funto omojola do a reading for segue where the material was not new, but the reading was. that is, there is something ever changing about poetry, even when on the page, that becomes intensified when aloud. i think it becomes more collective. i think it becomes more habitable. i think i could hear these same poems once a month for the next five years to complement my frequent rereads of omojola’s incredible debut If I Gather Here and Shout, i really think so. sitting in a basement on that saturday afternoon, i could not describe to you how grateful i was.
—jacob
(but the real question is, where are we going to be?
two big things coming January 2026 <3)