Join us for a night of poetry at Florence Art & Museums’ Open Mic Night, happening on Tuesday, September 28th, 6:30 pm at Southall House, 209 E. Tuscaloosa St., Florence. The event will feature original poetry by Alan Burkett. Afterwards, the floor will be opened to other poets to share their poems. The optional writing prompt for September is: A Childhood Fear.

Burkett, who writes from his back patio in New Market, Alabama, is a 63-year-old retired defense analyst who spent much of his professional career studying foreign threat systems before turning, in retirement, to the quieter mysteries of poetry. What began as a way to fill the suddenly open hours of his days soon became a second vocation. His poems often find meaning in ordinary moments, memory, aging, place, loss, humor, and the complicated tenderness of a life lived in the American South. A multiple first-place award winner from the Alabama State Poetry Society, Burkett is the author of two poetry collections, January as a House You Walk Through and The Light Is Still On: Tales from a Southern Life. His third collection, The Museum of Ordinary Things, is forthcoming and expected to be published by the end of 2026.

This program is free and is sponsored by Florence Arts & Museums. The Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts is located at 217 E Tuscaloosa Street, Florence, AL, and is open Monday - Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. The event will be held at Southall House, just next to the Art Center office, at 209 E. Tuscaloosa St. Call 256-760-6379 for more information.