Our Town Verses & Voices was funded by the generous support of the Minnesota Regional Arts Council through an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature, the SLP Community Foundation and the Park Nicollet Foundation.

Anyone can and we would love to hear you. If you are interested in reading at any Poetry Jam, just start thinking of the poem or coming up with your own and get ready to have a good time. We welcome you to the "stage" and hope that your experience will be a good one as you interact with others who write and love to listen.

Thank you for agreeing to read in the FOTA poetry jam. We are so glad you are willing to share your work. This is an opportunity for poets to show the voices and variety in our community.

A  few hints are in order as you prepare for the reading event(s). Observing them will make the evening more enjoyable for both poets and audience

1. Read poems only. This is a poetry jam to celebrate poets in the community.
   
2. Time your reading for 3-5 minutes . This will allow everyone time to read. If there is time at the end, we will go around again and offer a second chance for participants to read their work.
   
3. We encourage family-friendly poetry with subjects of interest to a broad community audience.
   
4. Practice. Read slowly and strongly. Even with a microphone, it is best when poems are well-presented so the audience can really enjoy/hear /understand them.