The Poetry Brothel: A Decade of Literary Seduction (Origin Stories)

It is April of 2016 and we are entering The House of Yes in Brooklyn for something called “The Poetry Brothel.”

All around us are aerialists in spinning cages, burlesque performers, musicians and poets pouring their hearts out on stage. An interesting crowd of eclectic personas fills the room and it is hard to tell who is the performer and who is the guest. We purchase coins from pretty Vaudeville girls that buy us one-on-one experiences with our chosen poets in private back rooms. Orchestrating the event is The Madame, a sultry beauty with long red hair, who introduces us to the poets, each with a unique character inspired by the turn-of-the-century brothels in New Orleans, Paris, and Buenos Aires. Naturally, the event is filled with exaltation and desire but there’s something about the poetry that just takes it to the next level.

The Poetry Society of New York is the main umbrella of the nonprofit under which The Poetry Brothel operates, but it also includes other projects such as Milk Press, The Typewriter Project and The New York City Poetry Festival. Their mission is to bring poetry into the modern world through immersive experiences aimed at fostering intimacy while promoting radically open artistic expression. “Poetry Brothel in many ways is the core of The Poetry Society of New York and what we do,” says poet, entrepreneur and CEO of Poetry Society of New York Stephanie Berger, also known as the original Madame.

Founded by Berger and Nicholas Adamski in 2008, The Poetry Society of New York first emerged under the guise of The Poetry Brothel and since its creation, the immersive literary cabaret has expanded globally to five different continents and cities like London, Berlin, Paris and Mexico City, each with its own Madame and artistic autonomy.

“We kind of always said that we need to rebrand poetry and help people understand that it’s not just for halogen list classrooms and dusty professorial offices and universities…” says Berger.

“One of the wonderful things about immersive art is that you are always incorporating the audience, the environment and everything around you into the artwork,” adds Berger. “I love intimacy, I love humanity [and] ultimately it comes down to wanting to create opportunities for humans to connect over art on an intimate level where there is empathy and meaning and nuance.”

Adamski and Berger met in grad school where they were studying poetry and philosophy across from each other. She came up with the concept for The Poetry Brothel and started talking about it to all her colleagues at The New School who directed her to Nicholas Adamski as this was his forte. “We met for a drink and ended up talking for 5 hours and have been creative counterparts ever since,” recalls Berger. “Our first event was in January 2008 and in 2010, I got us a Poetry Brothel residency at Governors Island, cause they have all these buildings that are falling apart there. Artists may be the only people crazy enough to want to activate these spaces… and at the time there was no running water out there!” she adds.

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They spent the summer on the island and turned an old Victorian house into the Poetry Brothel. She recalls it being very crazy, fun and a lot of work.

“Back in those days there wasn’t enough tourism on the island… we were just lying in this gorgeous house all day, being poets in bed, reading to each other,” she laughs, “but you want your audience…”

The following year, in an effort to bring more people out to the island, Berger and Adamski pitched The New York City Poetry Festival because strangely, it didn’t exist and they saw the green wide open spaces of Governor’s Island as a festival paradise. That year they created seven themed stages with simultaneous poetic activities happening throughout — a beautiful marriage of immersive performance art and spoken word. “We feel extraordinarily lucky to have the relationship that we have with Governors Island because we’ve been doing events there for the past 12 years and it’s expanded so much and grown in popularity and it’s still this giant island with tons of space on it, in a city that has no space…where every square foot is accounted for. So being able to do it out there is pretty awesome,” says Berger.

“I think that poetry is unique in its ability to create that sense of empathy because of the universal quality of language and people. For me poetry and immersive just go hand in hand,” says Berger.

Last month (July 24th and 25th), The New York Poetry Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary, incorporating lots of different ways to access poetry all over Governor’s Island. Like in previous years, the tickets were free and the experience was open to the public.

Pop-up poetry performances started on the ferry going out to the island in collaboration with House of SpeakEasy, an organization dedicated to the essence of literary culture. The immersive company, Metaforyou, known for creating immersive games and brand activations bicoastally, set up The Department of Moving Verse — a DMV kind of experience where poetic licenses were given out to those who passed a poetic quest. Other installations included Kaira Villanueva’s fox sculptures made out of chicken wire with cards in their mouths that people were encouraged to add their own words to. There was also a Poetry Labyrinth created by artist Sarah Huck, made out of words on stones, that audiences were encouraged to walk around with, in a kind of meditative fashion, leading to a particularly beautiful tree on the island where they could share their thoughts and experiences together.

The festival also brought back the Milk Press Happening Gallery — an interactive tent where everyone was invited to collaborate with a featured artist. Launched in 2018, Milk Press is The Poetry Society of New York’s publishing arm created to foster collaborations between poets and artists of other mediums. The Milk Press Happening Gallery featured musicians, poets, visual artists, installations, live painting and a kind of make—your—own Tarot cards station. Audiences were invited to leave a poem or piece of visual art that was later turned into a Zine, incorporating material generated live during the event. Through the lockdowns, Milk hosted virtual poetry workshops and online happenings that grew in popularity. “It was really nice to have something in person under our Milk arm again,” says Berger, “it has formed quite a community over the course of the past year and a half.”

Naturally, The Poetry Brothel made an incredibly vibrant and decadent appearance at The New York City Poetry Festival, parading around the island and giving private poetry readings throughout the day in specially curated corners of the festival. This was the first time that the Poetry Brothel community gathered in person since the start of the pandemic.

Two special headliners, Terrance Hayes and Arianna Reines, whose work Berger has been following for years, presented their work at the festival. “Hayes is just one of the best living poets nowadays,” says Berger. “His book, American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin won the National Book Award in 2018 and it’s a book of Sonnets that are so heartbreaking and sexy and funny,” adds Berger. Ariana Reines has been one of Berger’s favorite poets since she read her first book, The Cow in 2006. Raines put out a book last year called, A Sand Book — a beautiful collection of poetry filled with tales of her life and her poetic perspective.

“The two of them just blow me away and they both gave unforgettably good performances of brand new work. I couldn’t have imagined a more vibrant celebration of the NYC Poetry Festival’s 10th year!” says Berger.

Berger and Adamski’s focus now is to continue with their educational programming through Milk Press Virtual Poetry Workshops and poetry campouts in the Catskills that they started in 2020 “Catskills poetry campout is an opportunity to take poetry and various sorts of nature-related focus workshops while also hanging out with poets around the campfire, sharing poems and singing each evening,” says Berger. It culminates in a big immersive performance at the end where the attendees are invited to collaborate and explore new formats of expression together. “It’s like a 4 day retreat for folks who want to connect on a deeper level,” she adds. Throughout the pandemic, it has become apparent that people are hungry for poetry and how to express themselves in a different environment. The Poetry Society of New York now has an education committee, specifically designed to take into account the immersive ways of teaching poetry that will surely open new doors and possibilities to aspiring writers and performers alike. Their next campout takes place in early September.

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