Today’s post will wrap up my roundup of reading and performance series that have included Houston VIP Slam, Poison Pen Reading Series, and Write About Now Poetry.
The First Friday Reading Series is the oldest series in Houston and has been going strong for the last forty-four years, holding monthly readings on the first Friday of each month since 1975. This classic platform has seen many of the city’s strongest writers grace its podium. The reading format is super simple: Have the Inprint House host on the first Friday of the month, select a featured poet, and then get the open mic going.
The series has always been open to the public so that any and every person gets a chance to read in a beautiful setting. What could be more literary than reading in a space that was once the living room of Claudia Rankine? The readings start at 8:30 PM and usually go on until 11:00 PM. This space is always packed and there is a running joke that even the “VIP Section,” the staircase, gets full quick providing extra seating when all the chairs are taken. I always have a great time when I am able to go and look forward to getting to hear a variety of poets, those that I have known for years and new friends I’m meeting for the first time.
What I have always loved about First Friday, still hosted by Robert Clark after all these years, is that anyone who goes is either reading older poems they haven’t read in forever or reading brand new work for the first time. Writers often experiment with poems they are planning on adding to a manuscript in order to hear their words out loud and get live feedback. Whatever you want to bring to the open mic, this is the safest space to do this work in. Come on in, there is always a chair, or a staircase, waiting for you.
First Friday Reading Series audience at Inprint House. Lupe Mendez is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Houston. Contact him at Houston@pw.org or on Twitter, @houstonpworg.