Poetry & Pints

Poetry & Pints was started in November 2015 by GS Murphy at East End Brewing Company. A handful of readers were lured by the no-pressure environment that encouraged seasoned AND new poets to step up to the mic. When GS moved to central New York in Autumn 2017, he was looking for volunteers to continue the reading circle that had grown to about fifteen consistent attendees. He got two, and that’s when Lori Beth and Merrick (then known as Shan Soleil) took up the mantle of co-hosting!

Through monthly open mics for the next two years, Poetry & Pints built a community of readers and listeners who followed when P&P moved from the Larimer location of EEBC to the Strip District Taproom in June 2018 as the brewery’s home-base transitioned the space to include a restaurant. By this time approximately 40 folx were coming out to share, listen, and cheer on our now multi-genre open mic. No longer just poetry, P&P has songwriters sharing lyrics and prose writers sharing short stories and novel excerpts! We were deeply saddened when EEBC closed the Taproom in July, and P&P took a small, well-timed hiatus with a single pop-up event at Kingfly Spirits.  In December 2019, Poetry & Pints was honored to officially join the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective fold as an official PPC program!

Poetry & Pints Nothing but poetry love and a good pint – a reading series that’s all about the work. P&P was started in 2016 by our friend GS Murphy and joined the Pittsburgh Poetry Collective fold in December 2019! Poetry & Pints held regular monthly events at Burgh’ers Brewing in Lawrenceville prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and is now looking for a home.

Like P&P on Facebook, and we hope to see you soon!

There are no rules at Poetry & Pints, but here are our guidelines:

  • Free speech/brave speech policy:  so important it’s in all of our event listings!  Read it, it’s good!
  • Consent is mandatory!  In life and at Poetry & Pints.  
  • Pronouns!  We want to use the ones you want us to use – so write them on the signup sheet where indicated please!
  • The time limit is:  “don’t appoint yourself the star of the show”  We try to go through the sign-up list at least twice, and we reserve the right to cut.
  • Please don’t be afraid of the microphone – it is good practice and it helps the show be accessible to people.  We all want to hear you in this big room. Ask if you need help.
  • You can read original work or someone else’s work, but please be sure to let us know who wrote it.
  • Content note/ warning – TRY to use them for your pieces if you think they are applicable.  If you hear something triggering for you, please help yourself feel safe. Let us know if we can support you in it.
  • We strive to minimize gendered and binary language in on our microphone. Yes, this means don’t say “guys” to refer to “everyone.” We know all your arguments about why this is fine. We also know there are people in the room who feel othered by it, and no one wants that! This will make you a better humyn and a better writer, guaranteed!  
  • Shameless self promotion is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED!  Let us know if you are reading somewhere else, or if there’s something poem-y coming up that you’re really excited about!  Share your other events and favorite readings in the room, in the Facebook event, in the Pittsburgh Poetry Calendar Facebook group, in the Pittsburgh Poetry Calendar Meetup!