Come vibe with us at A Detroit Poetry Music Night—live beats and raw verses right in the D!
Join us in person for a chill evening packed with soul-stirring poems and live beats straight from the heart of Detroit. Whether you're a poetry lover, music enthusiast, or just looking for a cool night out, this event’s got you covered. Come vibe, share, and celebrate the city's vibrant creative scene with friends old and new. Don't miss out on this unique blend of words and rhythm!
Carolyn Striho is a highly regarded Detroit songwriter, singer, performer, musician, poet and educator whose songs are “from the silver edge of midnight” All Music Guide. From her early days in Detroit art rock/punk rock to Detroit Energy Asylum and her current soulful music, she blends rock and roll, folk and soulful baroque. Carolyn was on The Grammy Awards First Ballot again in 2025. She has won eleven Detroit Music Awards for Outstanding Rock Songwriter and more. Carolyn's performed in the U.S., Italy, and England with Patti Smith, Don Was, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Steve Earle, Sinead O’Connor, Tori Amos, and Yoko Ono. She has performed at London Meltdown U.K., Donne in Musica Rome Italy, in Japan, and at Lollapalooza, among others. She also received master’s degrees from Wayne State University in English literature/teaching. Carolyn’s book “Detroit (Maiden Energy)” received critical acclaim. "With a fierce stage persona and poetic magic, Striho embraces the variety and spontaneity of every show, her songs and live shows steeped in diversity from rock to Americana to classical music to pop to blues to jazz." John Sinkevics, Local Spins, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Tracy Kash began her musical life as a classical musician. She received a bachelor’s degree from University of North Texas and a master’s degree from the venerable Boston Conservatory in orchestral music and music theory. Tracy is an accomplished flutist, vocalist, composer, arranger, and pianist. Tracy has composed for and performed with a variety of ensembles including Pebble Creek Chamber Orchestra, Theatre Bizarre Orchestra, Nighthawks Jazz Orchestra and her own soul ensemble, Tracy Kash and the Bro’ Fos. Her 4th studio album, Fierce, was nominated for a 2020 Detroit Music Award for Outstanding World Music Recording, with other nominations. She has also written companion music for the historical novel “Remembrance”, by Heather Buchanan and inspired by the Harlem Hellfighters during World War I. Tracy received a 2021 Detroit Music Award for Outstanding World Vocalist. “The joy here is that that Tracy Kash Thomas sings of familiar issues with an enormous sense of hope and feeling. Like Joni Mitchell or Carole King, this well-trained musician connects, and the ordinary is suddenly extraordinary.” Metro Times, Brett Callwood Detroit
Heather Buchanan is a producer, director, screenwriter and publisher. an award-winning publisher and film producer. A Detroit native, Buchanan is the founder of AUXmedia and Aquarius Press, who develop film, television and new media projects. She is the Executive Producer for Solomon (2020), a Sundance Private Master Class Selection. Buchanan is the writer-producer of Hastings, a limited series, and the writer-producer of CEO, a feature based on the memoir of industrial magnate Willie E. Artis. Buchanan is a co-Founder of the award-winning Willow Books, which publishes many of the nation's top writers of color. She is developing a musical based on her novel, Victors, about the Harlem Hellfighters of World War I. Her film, When the Swan Sings on Hastings, is nominated for the Independent Spirit Award at the Trinity International Film Festival in Detroit and will be screened in the Detroit Collection Film Festival “To my mind, Victors is the perfect historical novel, weaving together richly developed characters, a compelling plot, and a solid grounding in historical details. Together, these elements bring important aspects of World War I history to life. They also make for a fast-paced, entertaining read”. Beth Castrodole,Small Press Picks
https://voyagemichigan.com/interview/meet-heather-buchanan-of-aquarius-press/
Mary McGuire is the recipient of the Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Americana Songwriter, Mary was schooled by her music teachers, church guitar group, and the jocks at America’s first underground radio stations, Detroit's WABX, WRIF, and W4. Album rock had a major influence on her songwriting and guitar playing from acoustic rock, folk, folk-rock, rock, progressive rock, southern rock, to blues. She studied music theory and composition at Michigan State University to learn the art of writing and performing. Mary’s played in Ash Can Van Gogh, Spiral Dance, Cosmic Dali, Blood Sisters, Calamity Jane and in loads of duos and trios over the decades. On the road for a couple of decades, Mary's played on stages large and small from Mackinac Island to Martha's Vineyard and wherever the four winds blow. "Her guitar chops are on par with some of the best players out there and she takes her craft very seriously. Mary is a force in the Detroit music scene and beyond that shouldn’t be overlooked." Stacey Sherman, RSP Entertainment Marketing Michigan
Kahn Santori Davison is a Detroit music writer for The Metro Times. He was formerly an art columnist for The Gazette News and an Arts and Entertainment writer for The Michigan Citizen. He recently won the Spirit of Detroit Award. Khan has served as a creative writing instructor at Detroit Impact Community Center and InsideOut Literary Arts Project. He was one half of the poetry group Khaos and co-stars in the award-winning play Mahogany Dreams. He’s a Cave Canem fellow whose work has been featured in The Alabama Poetry Society, The Entoitist, The Baltimore Review, London’s X-Bout, Barbaric Yap, Callaloo, Black Renaissance Noire, and The Litchfield Review. Davison received a 2015 Kresge Artist Grant, served as a 2023 Kresge Eminent Artist panelist, and a 2017 Kresge Artist Fellowship panelist in Literary Arts. “Blaze ignites in its reclamation towards self-identity above and beyond tragedy and instigates for the renewal of one of Detroit’s own…He traverses beyond his historical migration of familial ties and connects with a cultural mysticism—finding a bittersweet station in life. From KRS-One to Eminem—from Jimi Hendrix to Jack White—Davison pluckily examines/defines what place and family mean—all the while blazing on.” Curtis L. Crisler, author of Wonderkind & Dreamist