DOORS OPEN AT 5:30--no early admittance.Brighten the longest night of the year by listening to some poetry—or sharing some writing of your own—at Poetry in the Boro at Dapper Owl on Sunday evening, December 21, 2025. Our feature will be poet, performance artist, and bookmaker Cheyanne Leonardo. Read more about Cheyanne below.
The feature will be at 6:00, with open mic to follow. Drip coffee and light nibbles will be available at no charge. However, we hope that you’ll order from Dapper Owl’s tasty menu to help make this a winning collaboration for all of us! Their menu includes coffee, tea, beer, cider, chips, and baked goods.
About the open mic
Open mic readers can share poetry or spoken word: 2 poems or four minutes, whichever comes first. Reading a favorite poem by another writer is fine, too. Sign up for the open mic on site. Sign ups begin when doors open at 5:30. No early admittance.
We always ask that readers be prepared to keep their pieces “PG-13” depending on our venue and audience, which sometimes includes younger people.
The Dapper Owl coffee pub is located at 2412 East Main St. just past its intersection with Rutherford Blvd., on the east side of the MTSU campus. Overflow parking is on the Arnold Lane side of the building – pull in perpendicular to the building to allow more cars to fit (careful of the AC unit!) or park on the side of road down Arnold Lane (please don’t block any driveways).
About our feature
Cheyanne Leonardo is a poet, performance artist, and bookmaker from the Big South Fork. She is the editor-in-chief of Dandelion Scribes, an online poetry publication that promotes creativity in rural Appalachia and uplifts local writers. Her newest book, published under her pen name ‘the dithyrambler’ – is a collection of poetry called Devil’s Jump. Inspired by the local folklore surrounding the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, the book explores themes of spirituality, reality, nature, memory, language, and collective liberation. Lately, Cheyanne has also been weaving her poetry into custom, one-of-a-kind creations, collage art, greeting cards, and handmade books.
Challenge words
If you like, write a new piece to share that includes one, some, or all of these words, selected by our audience at our last gathering:
stuffing | oh | salubrious | terminate | oxymoron | flamboyant | scurry | fly | eviscerate | neighbor
We rely on your donations
ADMISSION IS FREE. A DONATION of $5 or more is appreciated to help us offset our costs. You can donate using PayPal at paypal.me/poetryintheboro. We also accept donations on site.
Poetry in the Boro thanks MTSU Write and the Rutherford Arts Alliance for their on-going partnerships and support.
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