Announcing our first session of Poets & Storytellers Open for 2026! On Friday, January 9th, we’ll be in Downtown Hopewell, NJ at the one and only Wull & Oak.

P&SO welcomes everyone to bring their ORIGINAL poetry or prose, polished or in progress, to this wonderful space. We love the poetry hits and the standards, but P&SO is a space for writers performing or working out their original pieces. The open mic signup list will be capped at 12 readers. Reminder, the list does fill up quickly, so be sure to arrive on time to secure a spot! Each performer will have up to 5 minutes to share their work. For those who would only like to watch the performances, you’re more than welcome to also join our audience. The event is free and open for all to enjoy, but we do welcome donations to help keep the event funded.

First up for our 2026 features is poet Hugo dos Santos (@hugofdossantos). Hugo is the author of Reduction in Force (Bauhan Publishing, 2026), winner of the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, and Then, there (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), a collection of Newark stories. He is the translator of Homecoming (Arquipelago Press, 2024) and A Child in Ruins (Writ Large Press, 2016), a staff pick at the Paris Review Daily. Born in Lisboa, Portugal, and raised in Newark, New Jersey, he writes toward questions of diaspora, belonging, and memory.

As usual for our poet features, we’ll have a Q&A session following the Hugo’s set.

Details for the evening:
6:50 PM - doors/open mic signup begins*
7:15 to 8:15 PM - open mic
8:30 to 9:00 PM - featured poet: Hugo dos Santos

Wull & Oak is located at:
10 E. Broad St. Hopewell, NJ

Light refreshments will be provided.

See you there!