Beat Night

15th poet laureate of Portsmouth Myles Burr reading with the beat night band at the Press room. We can't wait to see what Myles does over the next two years as laureate!

Come meet the new brank spanking new poet laureate of Portsmouth Myles Burr at Beat Night at the Press Room tomorrow May 28thth at 7pm

April 30th 7pm The Press Room

RescuePoetix | Susan Justiniano is an award-winning bilingual performing poet and teaching artist, whose work centers on matriarchal inheritance, legacy, and healing. Rooted in her Puerto Rican identity, she blends poetry, media, and performance to honor intergenerational stories. Published works appear in journals, anthologies, and community spaces across the diaspora.

Beat Poet Laureate of Maine 2024-2026, Claire Conroy self published two books (“Listen” in 2018 and “Silent” in 2022) and a chapbook (“Rumors From Dead Lips” in 2024). Her third book (“Inlets” 2026) was published by Keeping the Flame Alive Press. Born in Portsmouth, NH, she is a board member of the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program and hosts their open mics, The HOOT and Painting Poetry. Claire lives in Sanford, Maine and is a board member of the Sanford Arts Commission. She also hosts Beat Night at Flourish in Biddeford, Maine and has been published in over 40 anthologies. Claire is happy to announce her third book, Inlets: Memoir Poetry, published by Keeping the Flame Alive Press, is available on Amazon.

Bring those poems you wouldn't read to your mom to erotic poetry night at beat night on February 26th where we do our own spicy version of Valentine's! Hosted by the saucy Amanda Giles and backed by the super sexy beat night band.

Ever since she learned that poems do not need to rhyme, Lauren WB
Vermette has been flinging emotions at the page like an action-painter
slings paint at a canvas. Once she got over her fear of microphones, she
has been burning them up at every local reading she can find. Her work
has appeared in Rat’s Ass Review Journal, Sledgehammer, Solstice, and
Underground Writers Association, among others. Her first collection of
poetry, And The Form Falls Away (2018), was published by Bee Monk Press. Lauren WB Vermette is currently serving as the 14th Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, NH.

Jason O’Toole is Poet Laureate Emeritus of North Andover, MA. He serves on the advisory board of the New England Poetry Club, and as treasurer of the Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco. He is the winner of the 2025 Amy Lowell Prize and has been nominated for the
Rhysling and Pushcart Prize. He serves as a judge for the Tom Nattell
Peace Poetry Prize and the Capital District Slam Poetry Festival in NY.
Recent poems and prose have appeared in the anthology Love is for All of Us (Storey Publishing), as well as Ghost City Press, The Somerville
Times, Phil Lit, and Tiny Molecules.

You ate all the candy and you're about to buy all the presents. But let's stop for a moment and give thanks for what and who we have. Bring your thanksgiving poems to Beat Night at The Press Room on Wednesday November 19th 7pm and read with the Beat Night Band for this special two-hour open mic