About
What we do
We organize and host poetry workshops, open mic nights, and slams, both online and in-person. We try to create welcoming, supportive spaces where people feel comfortable sharing their art. We care about inclusivity, authenticity, and connection. We hope that people come away from our events with new friends and new poems in their hearts.
What our attendees have said about us
"I loved how supportive everyone was of everyone. ... I kept thinking to myself ... is this the community I’ve been looking for this whole time?"
"Hearing from such a diverse collection of artists was incredible."
"The poetry slam was awesome! ... Overall just a really well run and enjoyable event."
"Great poets. Great Vibes. ...Thank you guys for providing this outlet. Always a treat."
"It is a place for us to gather and combat some of feelings of isolation and frustration that can accompany suburban living."
"The ... community is a vibrant, supportive, creative place where poets and poetry lovers of all ages gather regularly to enjoy and be uplifted by poetry. It's a peaceful, warm community that welcomes newcomers and gives a lot back."
"They offered a safe space for me to grow as a poet, and for the first time in my life I felt comfortable sharing my poetry with others. "
Our history
Rockland Poets has been organizing and hosting poetry events in and around Rockland County, NY since 2011.
Our monthly poetry open mic night started in March 2011 at a small art gallery in Suffern, NY. The series didn't have a name at first -- we were just a few friends with access to a venue and a love for poetry and community. By that fall, we were calling ourselves "Suffern Poetry."
We held our first poetry slam in December 2011 at a small cafe in Tuxedo, NY. We named the monthly slam "Suffern Slam Society," which, in hindsight, sounds kind of pretentious.
We sent our first team to the National Poetry Slam in the summer of 2013. We continued to send a 4- or 5-person team to Nationals every year until it ended in 2018.
After bouncing around a variety of venues -- including martial arts studios, libraries, cafes, bars, churches, and community rooms -- we finally found some stability. In September of 2013, we relocated our poetry slam to Casa del Sol in Nyack, NY. In April 2014, we relocated our poetry open mic to the community room in the Suffern Municipal Building. These were our permanent homes until the pandemic happened and in-person events stopped for a while.
Since half of our events were happening outside of Suffern, we decided in 2017 to rename ourselves "Rockland Poets."
During the first summer of the pandemic, we started hosting poetry workshops and open mics over Zoom.
In November 2021, we started our in-person poetry slams again. Lately, we're doing most of our events at X House on S Franklin St in Nyack.