Registration Not Required, but highly encouraged. During registration you can express interst in the open mic moment and interest in performing for future poet’s corners.

Let Us Know You Are Coming

📅 Thursday, February 27, 2025
🕖 7:00 PM
📍 Laskey Art Gallery, Scarritt Bennett Center | Nashville, TN
🎟 Free Event | Free Parking | Refreshments Provided

Join us for an unforgettable evening of poetry, artistry, and conversation at Poet’s Corner—a gathering where words come alive.

This February, we welcome two distinguished poets whose works illuminate the beauty in the everyday, explore the passage of time, and reflect on the resilience of the human spirit.

🌟 Featured Poets

Brenda Butka
A retired physician with a lifelong love for poetry, Brenda Butka writes with keen observation and depth, weaving narratives of her patients, gardens, and reflections on time and knowledge. Her work has been featured in The Threepenny Review, Florida Review, POEM, Slant, and anthologized in Annals of Internal Medicine, where she was awarded Best Poem of the Year in 2017. She has also published three chapbooks, including Drawing the Resistance. Brenda lives on a farm on the edge of Nashville with her husband, embracing life’s quiet moments and their unfolding stories.

Julie Sumner
A poet, educator, and former critical care nurse, Julie Sumner explores poetry as a path to resilience. Her chapbook Meridian was selected by Jane Hirshfield as the winner of the 2023 con/verge/nces chapbook contest from Wildhouse Publishing. Her work has appeared in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Delta Poetry Review, The Intima, Relief Journal, The Englewood Review of Books, and more. With an MFA in poetry from Seattle-Pacific University, she now teaches creative writing and lives in Nashville with her husband.

🎤 More Than a Reading

Arrive early to experience a featured art installation in the Laskey Gallery and stay after the readings for a live Q&A recording for our podcast, The Art Of, where you’ll have the chance to engage with the poets and gain deeper insights into their work.

📌 Admission is free, and all are welcome. Whether you’re a longtime poetry lover or new to the art form, Poet’s Corner is a space to be inspired, reflect, and connect.

👉 Mark your calendar and join us for a night of poetry and conversation.

About Scarritt Bennett Center: Scarritt Bennett Center is a nonprofit education, retreat, and conference center with a rich history of empowering individuals for social transformation. Located in Nashville, TN, the center provides a welcoming space for dialogue, learning, and community engagement.

Let Us Know You Are Coming