We Carry Us: A Virtual Open Mic

Inspired by the mass quarantines and social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in many shutdowns and cancellations, We Carry Us is a virtual open mic collaboration between Staten Island organizations: NYSAI Press, the St. George Library, the Stapleton Library, SIZL, and Richmond Hood Company.

Every day of the week, until this state of emergency ends, we ask you to submit a poem to the participating organization of the day-of-the-week:

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Monday— NYPL: St. George Library Center
Tuesday—NYSAI Press
Wednesday—NYPL: Stapleton Library
Thursday—SIZL
Friday— Richmond Hood Company

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The featured poem of the day will be selected by the corresponding organization by 3pm and will appear on their website or social media for that week.

Follow the hashtag #wecarryus

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GUIDELINES:

• Please submit poems to
• In the subject section, please put which day of the week you are submitting to, i.e. “Monday”
• Nothing longer than 2 pages
• No racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, xenophobia
• As of right now, this is for Staten Island writers, but as weeks go by, we will be opening this up to the general public
• We will try to have a different person/poet/editor pick the published poem to make sure everyone has a fair shake