Happy Hour (in the Steinbright lobby): 5:00-6:00pm
Performance begins: 6:00pm
Growing older is tough, but look at the alternative! Whether you're living it or you're looking ahead, join us in the Steinbright for a conversational evening of poems written from long experience. Four accomplished poets from the region will share their wisdom and expertise in verse, through work inspired by the gifts and groans of age and the vast perspective you gain over the years. Hosted by Chester County-based poet Vincent Tavani, the evening starts off with a happy hour, followed by the poets’ performances, a panel discussion, and a generous intermission to mingle with the artists and fellow poetry lovers.
This event is inspired by the world premiere of The Unexpected 3rd on our Steinbright Stage, a solo piece by award-winning theatre artist Kathryn Grody that’s a rollicking rumination on the transition into elderhood. CLICK HERE to learn more about the play.
Your ticket includes one free drink!
GET TICKETS: POETRY HAPPY HOUR
MEET THE ARTISTS
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA is the author of The Politics of Sorrow, an account of early Tibetan exile political life in India published by Columbia University Press (2025). She has several collections of poetry: My Rice Tastes Like the Lake, In the Absent Everyday and Rules of the House (all from Apogee Press, Berkeley). Dhompa's first non-fiction book, A Home to Tibet, was published by Shambhala Publications in 2015. Dhompa is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Villanova University.
Dagmar Holl
DAGMAR IRIS HOLL was born in Southern Germany, in 1948, in a small rural area outside of Karlsruhe and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1955 at the age of seven. This move had a major impact on her life. The lure into the arts and poetry entered into her life through her sister and her sister’s Beatnik friends in the early 60’s. Holl began writing in her 30’s to ‘purge’ familiar struggles, to shed the sorrow and dysfunction which came from that life. Self-healing, self-taught. Her own beat.
Cherise Pollard
CHERISE A. POLLARD, Ph.D., is Professor of English at West Chester University. A Cave Canem and Callaloo Fellow, Pollard was awarded a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. Her poem, “Sugar Babe” was a Finalist for the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Outsiders, was chosen by C.M. Burroughs as the winner of the 2015 Susan K. Collins/Mississippi Valley Chapbook Contest sponsored by the Midwest Writing Center. Along with Wendy Scott Paff and Daniela Buccilli, Pollard is co-editor of the Show Us Your Papers poetry anthology (Main Street Rag Press, 2020). She is currently co-editing an anthology of poems about Motown. Her collection of poetry, Nodes of Growth, is forthcoming in summer of 2026 from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions.
Hosted by: Vincent Tavani
VINCENT TAVANI is Phoenixville's wandering poet, where he sets up with a typewriter and writes poems on the spot for people. Returning to his hometown after years of travel, educational work, and adventurous labor, he works to give people words that transform life. Heartwood Ecopoetry and Performance, a public reading series with its own modern commedia dell'arte troupe, lets story and poetry connect people to place and nature. Phoenixville Poetry Nights is a conversational reading series to share the poems we love. He is on Instagram @poetvincent and can be commissioned for special poems and events at vincenttavani@gmail.com.
