Flourish Alabama to Host BPL Bards & Brews Open Mic on April 2 in Ensley

Bards & Brews Open Mic

Date: Thursday, April 2, 2026
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. (Doors open at 6 p.m.)
Featured Poet: Thed Weller
Host: Jahman Hill
Location: The Greenhouse, 602 19th St., Ensley, Birmingham, AL 35218

About Bards & Brews: Bards & Brews is the Birmingham Public Library’s monthly spoken word poetry and craft beer event. The series is sponsored in part by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, awarded to the Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Bards & Brews, the Birmingham Public Library’s popular monthly spoken word poetry and craft beer event, returns for a special Open Mic Night on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at The Greenhouse, 602 19th Street in Ensley.

The Greenhouse serves as headquarters for Flourish Alabama, a poetry nonprofit co-founded by Bards & Brews veteran Jahman Hill and fellow poet Eric Marable.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and the poetry begins at 6:30 p.m. Hill will serve as guest host for the April 2 event, while current Bards & Brews host Thed Weller will be the featured poet of the evening.

Ensley holds a special place in the history of Bards & Brews. It was the home community of the late Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins, the longtime host of the Birmingham Public Library’s Bards & Brews series who passed away unexpectedly at age 42 in August 2021.

Hill credits Voice Porter with introducing him to Birmingham’s spoken word poetry scene through Bards & Brews and says he is excited to help bring the series back to The Greenhouse. The venue also hosted a Bards & Brews Open Mic tribute to Voice Porter in June 2023.

Hill and Marable’s nonprofit, Flourish Alabama, has also hosted Word Up!, a youth poetry slam featuring high schools across metro Birmingham, at the Birmingham Public Library’s Central Location in recent years. The library originally founded the Word Up! program.

A longtime participant in Bards & Brews, Hill has won several BPL poetry slams.

Written by Roy L. Williams, Public Relations Specialist – Birmingham Public Library