A wide range of performers delivered a mix of routines Monday at Popcorn Poetry, a monthly open mic event at Pocono Cinema and Cultural Center in East Stroudsburg.
Brianna Booker founded the uncensored, all-ages event, which is free to the community.
“We always have a different mix of features, a different mix of open mic-ers,” she said. “No month is the same.”
March’s event was a roughly 50/50 mix of comedians and poets with diverse experience levels.
“Having a mixed mic gives you a new opportunity to not only see different mediums,” comedian Chris Jones said. “But it also gives a good outlook to younger people to be able to show up to a mic… if you’re in a place that has a really good community, you can get a lot done.”
Pocono Cinema and Cultural Center provides the space for the community event for free. Carlton Farnbaugh, who co-hosts the show with Booker, makes sure the featured performers get some sort of compensation.
“We go around to all the local businesses and fill popcorn buckets up with what I can best call swag,” he said.
The energy is lighthearted and open. Everyone in the room quickly became friends. Geara Cantania, 26, read a few original poems after telling the audience she had a bad mental health day.
“I look forward to it every month,” she said. “The comedians are funny. I’m always cracking up back here.”
Rashad Thomas was the last performer to take the stage with poems about women's appreciation, his mother and the violence he experienced growing up in Harlem.
“As a poet in that space, you get to allow yourself to be silly and not so serious,” he said. “It’s almost like being at a family reunion.”
Poet laureate initiative
Booker was eager to establish the Monroe County Poet Laureate Program soon after she started hosting Popcorn Poetry in 2022.
“I have wanted to be a poet laureate since I was about 12 years old,” she said. “I would love to do workshops in middle and high schools, get kids a little more interested in poetry."
The poet laureate will host or attend community events and champion literacy initiatives, she said.
A four-person committee will choose Monroe County’s appointed poet laureate. Chair Farnbaugh described who would be a good fit.
“Anyone who has been playing ambassador for the artform in the county,” he said.
The committee will accept applications through the end of the month. Applicants must be 21 or older, live in Monroe County and have a written body of work.
Thomas applied for the position.
“I would love to use that platform to try to create more initiatives to show children the power of writing and career possibilities in writing,” he said.
The inaugural poet laureate will be featured in the next Popcorn Poetry on April 8 at 6:30 pm.
