May 29th from 7 to 9 P.M. at the Marine Village Hall.
Note – New Featured Artist – Davi Gray + Open Mic
Due to unforseen circumstances, Mona Susan Power is unable to attend. In her place, we welcome Davi Gray.
Davi (she/they) is a queer, trans, nonbinary poet, writer, performer, artist, producer, activist, and abolitionist. They live in Bde Óta Othúŋwe (Minneapolis), on unceded lands of the Dakota and Ojibwe, where she works through the ReEntry Lab to connect writers and other artists leaving incarceration with literary and arts communities ready to receive them.
Davi has work published in Poetry, Water~Stone Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Rogue Agent, and elsewhere. She writes first for the page, but is also a slam poet; as part of the BuckSlam team, she placed third at Midwest Poetry Mash-Up 2025. She was a finalist for the Haymarket Writing Freedom Fellowship in 2025; has been awarded grants by the Minnesota State Arts Board, the City of Minneapolis, and others; is producing a podcast due out in late 2025; and has several digital film projects and collaborations in progress. Her poetry collection This Body, This Fruit was a finalist for the 2025 Louise Bogan Award for Excellence in Poetry.
You can find more on Davi and her work, including publications and upcoming events and performances, at DaviGray.com.
OPEN MIC – starts at 8:00 p.m.
If you’d like to read/perform, you will be allotted 3 minutes. Please plan accordingly so everyone has a turn to share their voice.
***THEME***
We invite you to consider our theme for May as you create and prepare to share at open mic: In Love’s service, only the wounded soldiers can serve — “The Angel that Troubled the Waters” by Thorton Wilder
How have you been a wounded soldier in Love’s service? Have you ever turned your back on the calling to Love? What keeps you trying or what made you give up?
This event is sponsored by the Marine Community Library, the Brookside, and the St. Croix Valley Foundation.