Join us for a night of poetry on the patio with readings from John Leo + Kristine Esser Slentz. Joined by special guests Volta Slam Team (indy).
JOHN LEO is an author and game designer. He is the writer of This is Not a Place of Honor (Night Gallery Press, 2024) and The Names of Ancient Wars (Ghost City Press, 2021). His work has appeared in the anthology A Flame Called Indiana: New Writing from the Crossroads (Indiana University Press, 2023) and elsewhere. His tabletop design credits include Star Wars: Unlimited and Wolves of Mercia.
KRISTINE ESSER SLENTZ is a Maltese descendent, queer, cult escapee, and author of woman, depose (FlowerSong Press 2021, 2024). She grew up in both northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area—what her father calls the ‘bottom of the blue-collar.’ After receiving her GED, she completed her undergraduate degree at Purdue University, double-majoring in English Literature and Creative Writing, before earning a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (poetry) from City College of New York
(CCNY). KRISTINE is a Pushcart Prize nominee, finalist in the Glass Poetry Chapbook and F(r)iction’s Flash Fiction Contests, recipient of a CCNY English Department Teacher-Writer Award, a City Artist Corps Grant, and former Rifkind Fellow and Poets Afloat resident. She is the co-founder and organizer/host of the monthly experimental artist series, Adverse Abstraction, in New York City’s East Village. You can follow KRISTINE’s art on her substack, Carnations & Car Crashes.
VOLTA SLAM TEAM:
Richard:
Richard has been a writer since he first learned how to put sentences together. He believes it's necessary to simultaneously work for change in society as well as his own community. He likes his writing to be very blunt, honest, and unapologetic. His inspiration comes from the believe that the most powerful poems aren't created, they're found.
Makai:
Makai Brown is an Indianapolis born artist currently attending his senior year at IUPUI, where he is specializing in Digital Storytelling. As well as being a member of Word As Bond, he is also a multifaceted performer as an award winning poet, classically trained musician, visual artist, and general over achiever. His work has led to him performing in various international slam competitions and opening for stars like Bill Nye The Science Guy. Through his talents Makai hopes to explore the intertwining of art and poetry.
Tay:
Tay Elena is an Indianapolis born and raised attorney, social worker, and slam poet whose writing focuses on feminism and women's issues, often juxtaposing religious imagery with personal experiences. She discovered her love for poetry as a freshman in college, when she started writing in therapy; she quickly moved on to performing on small local stages including Vocab and Iconoclast before eventually landing a national slam title as a junior and later placing 11th in the nation as an individual competitor at Southern Fried in 2022.
Corey:
Corey Ewing is a native of Indianapolis, IN that pursued a love of poetry across the country on a whim. He would return home to support various poetic projects including Indianapolis Poetry Slam, Word As Bond, Fighting Words Poetry, Cosplay Poets, multiple slam teams, Cafe Creative and currently curates Vocab. He continues to teach, coach, and create as an interdisciplinary artist in Indy.
White Dante:
Dante’s been a poet on the scene for over 10 years now. He discovered spoken word in Irvington in 2013 and has been immersing himself in all things Indianapolis poetry since. Over the years, he’s featured all over the city, hosted his own open mic, published his first book, “Bootleg”, and proudly represented Indianapolis as a member of the slam team for the Southern Fried Poetry Slam in 2019, 2022, and for a third time this year. Better known as White Dante, he is forever a student. Leaning on self-work and the world around him as a guiding light to find new ways to grow as a writer and speak truth to power.
$5/pwyc