Bowery Poetry Club

I went to the Bowery Poetry Slam because I heard that it was an amazing space for Artists. I was happy to see that it was just that. The woman who runs this place on Monday nights is so charismatic and very entertain; you can tell that she wants nothing more than for everyone to have a good night! It is a very loving safe space and I will be returning every week! I can’t wait

I thought this would be a great experience for slam poetry, but instead it was the most racist and segregated crew I’ve ever came across in NYC.
The whole experience was a complete joke! The poets who perform there are extremely clicky and quite corny. I was asked to be a judge and I give a white person a good score I was shouted that I was a racist. I was mortified and couldn’t believe what was happening.
There was crew of black people that didn’t respect one of the white poets as an artist and started to badger him in front of the crowed. The woman Ashley who is running the show was completely unprofessional and started screaming and crying on stage. It was complete mayhem.
I was completely quiet during the entire show and was told after the big brawl not to come back for at least a month! It was clearly white versus black and completely unacceptable!
It was shameful, and for that I will never return to the Bowery club.

This is the place to be on a Monday night.
It’s open mic poetry every Monday with a special guest featured. I was pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous venue and lights. The bar was OK nothing special.
Overall, a great night spent with friends. Would highly recommend!

Great space, love the venue.

It’s an interesting place where you get to see a lot of good talent and a lot of not so good talent, but everyone has to start somewhere. It is basically an event room with curtains on one spectrum and a bar outside. Events are not limited to Poetry and depending on the venue can be music or movies or other performance arts. Usually the cover is free and no more than $ 10.
Overall, a comfortable environment and a nice event space with good audio equipment compared to others in which I was sitting on the floor.

This establishment has been renovated and now called the Bowery Arts + Science. Now trying to have a Great Gatsby interior style, but not designed comfortably for intimate performances. Recently went to see a venue there, seating was very tight and seats were not assigned. Once allow in, after an hour long wait outside, people rushed to grab seats. My love and I couldn’t even enjoy the show sitting next to each other. No organization at all, the staff looked confused as why we were there. People w/​tickets and w/​o were on the same line. Once inside there was another 30 min. wait until the show started. Over all experience was not great. The 2 stars are for the singer we came to see, her voice was beautiful.

I’ve graced the stage at the Bowery a handful of times. Each time was pretty anxious turned exhilarating experience. Participating in an open mic, as well as trying my hand at the poetry slam competitions.
I’ve also seen a variety of interesting shows here. One of the most interesting that I didn’t stay for was the deaf poetry recital. Surreal. But making perfect sense.

The renovated space is faux nouveau classic rococo upscale. The snotty portly bartender and her loud coworker need to hush up during performances because no one is paying to hear their attitude.

I came here, and though I went over the 30-​second limit, they forcibly removed me from the premises. Apart from that, everything else is great.
Frozen fish stick dinner.
Hunger in my belly.
Two frozen fish sticks.
Thirty-​eight frozen peas.
Sixteen tater tots.
And a raspberry tart.
–Detlev

I was introduced to the Bowery Poetry Club on a lovely Monday night for Tranny Bingo. Instead of staying home on a Monday night, I decided to drive to NYC for some bingo with a couple of friends.
As we walked inside, we had to make a contribution to a poetry organization (or so I believe). I gave them $ 3.00. They were running drinks special at the time we arrived, which was pretty cool. The atmosphere was pretty chill. The space is very limited on Bingo night, so I would arrive a little bit early.
As for Bingo, Murray Hill and Linda Simpson are fantastic together. They are so funny! If you do not have a sense of humor or if you are not open-​minded, please do not come here. Also, if you do not like nudity, you might have a problem with a portion of the night.
The prizes are pretty random, which makes it all the better. One prize can be a dancing doll, while another prize can be a porn magazine. The last prize is the jackpot money. Unfortunately, none of us won, but we all had some great laughs and had a really good time.
Will be back again!

I came here to hear my friend JT read. The space is pretty basic, but there’s tons of room for chairs, a good sound system, a bustling bar (though the prices are in the medium range), and a large stage. I really like the collage of randomness to the left. Your eyes will wander.

I absolutely love Bowery Poetry! Definitely one of my favorite spots, and it always reminds me of why I love NYC so much. This place is so welcoming to a diverse group of people. Whether you are a poet yourself or just appreciate listening to poetry, you have to check this place out!
I have been to the Page Meets Stage event a few times which is hosted by Taylor Mali and brings in so many talented poets. I also recently checked out the Tuesday night Urbana Poetry Slam and was blown away! Definitely as good as it gets.

Went here on a Tuesday night for Urbana Poetry Slam and it was amazing. I don’t think you can say you’re a true New Yorker until you’ve experienced live poetry at the Bowery Poetry Club.
Spoken word at its best. I listened to people from all walks of life — young, old… different ethnicity, sexual preference. all under one roof to express their emotions of love, anger, sadness, joy… It was very inspirational. Words cannot describe it. So go at least once if not more to experience live poetry.

I went to the Monday night poetry /​tranny bingo night; they had an old man saying some poetry, but then he said a very racist remark on MLK Day, and I didn’t appreciate it.
I stayed for bingo, and I won, but the hosts gave my prize to someone else. RUDE!
It is $ 4 to play ($ 2/​card, 2 card min) probably would have had more fun playing at someones house :)
I am leaving 1 star because I don’t want to promote an establishment in NYC with racist performers (the older man reading poetry).

The entrance pays homage to all the Restaurant Kitchen Supply stores along the Bowery which I like. The space inside is the perfect size for a small stage, tables for artistically/​musically inclined guests to rest their drink on, and the spot to take a whiff of what kind of weed people are interested in smoking. Went in here for a movie screening. My «date» was an hour late so I missed the first half of the movie, which was too bad as it seemed like a pretty good movie after watching the second half. Sitting behind my date on a bar stool, some strange girl forcefully rubbed her inner thigh against mine while walking past me I was scared. Remember that part where McLovin was getting all rubbed up against in SuperBad? Yeah… me too.

It’s always a great time here. I went to Tranny Bingo on Monday night, and it’s a packed house everytime. So get there early. We got there at 7ish and it was hard to save our seats for the rest of our friends coming later. There was a sub tranny host, but she was still really hysterically funny and had on the best outfit ever.
The beers are priced cheaply at 5 bucks for one. And the bingo cards were only $ 2. It was a cheap night full of laughs. Unfortunetly, I wasn’t the winner in the jackpot drink off but I was pretty damn close. The crowd is really great and there were a bunch of really cool people. They have some pretty lame prizes but some were really funny too… like a pack of 40,000 nyc condoms.
You can bring your own food. One table was there with a pineapple and cutting board. Other than that I really think they had a great atmosphere with goood music! A definite must on monday.

I’ve been to this place a few times to see amazing performers – Penny Arcade, who needs no introduction, and last night to see Stefan Zeniuk and his band Gato Loco (Crazy Cat.) It was the full ensemble, Gato Loco Coconino; he also has a smaller ensemble called Gato Loco de Bajo (Low Notes.)
It’s a cool, open room in the back; the front room is a café which has nothing vegan, as far as I know, and it was closed last night anyway. The band opening for Gato Loco was a band named EMEFE (Music Frees All) and there were people dancing; it’s a damn good sign when the opening act is good.
Reading the other reviews, I might go tonight for open mike; sounds like you can’t lose. And the cover is reasonable, which is a huge plus. (For lazybones people like me, though, there’s also a live feed available at
, and I’m definitely keeping a tab open to it in my browser.)

Nice.
If you have a poem or performance inside of you, go to the Monday night open mics. You can just do whatever and everyone is forced to clap.
Mostly hobos come. Hobos. They are strung out and they go on stage to expel crazy-​cringe worthy dialogues that last twelve minutes long. Yeah, that’s four YouTube videos worth of boring— but it’s also fascinating. I learn so much about humiliation and dedication from these events.
Best of all, Monday night open mics help you analyze and deconstruct the meanings of performance and entertainment. There is just such incredible variety— all done with unrelenting passion.
Once a dude hooked his saxophone to a gas tank and each time he took a toot A MASSIVE FIRE BALL EXPLODED FROM THE STAGE ONTO THE FIRST ROW OF THE AUDIENCE. SPLASH ZONE!!!
I’m always entertained by shows at the BowPo, I’ve never been to a place where so many innovators come to create and perform.

A thousand times I’ve said before
A thousand times I’ll say it more
My source of outlet
Dramatic with passion
Written from my heart
Leave my mark in history
My Book of Shadows
History written
A thousand times I’ve said before
A thousand times I’ll say it more
Why should one’s style to re-​charge be judged?
Define your style
To shape the person who I am today
That I will never stop writing
As a somewhat newbie poet in the industry since January 2009, I’ve evolve and grown to a more outspoken versatile in my writing and as a spoken word artist performer. My first experience on a Sunday mid afternoon as a guest performer was well received.
Bowery Poetry Club’s admission fee at $ 6.00 per person allows artistic poets to freely express their most creative talent and build a network of aspiring writers, musicians and performing artists. Founded by Bob Holman in 2002 as a nirvara haven for verse in all its forms of poets, spoken word and performing artists. WiFi is an open network. No food exist but patrons are permitted BYOF of choice. At selected events and selected open-​mics Bowery streams live at:
That I just be!

Initial thoughts that I thunked:
Bingo? My friend wants to go play Bingo for her birthday? Oy. What is the world coming to? Awww, look at the cute old guy on stage. Cuuute!
Please make the old man get off stage. Yes, I know he’s had work in the Whitney. Yes, he’s adorable. But he’s lulling me to sleep. Make it stop. Please oh please. Friend on my left points out that this must be their secret tactic to making BINGO sound so wild and crazy…
Did I mention we are packed like sardines in this place? Get here early if you actually want a chair, and don’t forget to stretch and warmup. You will be doing some kinky moves to crawl up and over chairs and people.
Bingo has commenced. The hosts are hilarious. Yes, there are sixty sardines playing Bingo, that in itself is funny. But the hosts provide the real entertainment— great comedy is flowing nonstop throughout the night… I’m still wondering what the heck Tiddlywinks is…