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On the first and third Saturday of each month, poets from D.C., Baltimore and even farther north gather at the Jazz Poetry Cafe in Stafford County to perform their pieces to the sound of jazz seamlessly playing in the background.
However, creator Phillip Gregory is perplexed that the local poets aren't crawling out of the woodwork to perform.
"It's bewildering that there's such a small contingent here," Gregory said.
The Jazz Poetry Cafe is modeled after Russell Simmons's "Def Poetry Jam," an HBO series that showcases performance poets.
However, Gregory also likened the Jazz Poetry Cafe to Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" Top-40 shows, where performers are invited to showcase their talents.
Gregory, who became interested in poetry after writing love letters to his wife, developed Jazz Poetry Cafe in February 2002 after seeing numerous jazz poetry performances in D.C. After moving from several venues, the Jazz Poetry Cafe found its current home, at the Black Swan Restaurant and Lounge on Warrenton Road in Stafford.
Soon after, the Jazz Poetry Cafe was showcased on PoetsJoint, a performance poetry cable show based in D.C. Gregory invited the show back to Stafford. It came once. When PoetsJoint couldn't make Stafford a regular stop, Gregory decided to start PoetsDrum, which airs on Cox Cable Channel 25 Tuesday nights at 9 p.m.
This past Friday, PoetsDrum taped the first four episodes of its next season, which is slated to begin in September. Gregory invited poets to open auditions on June 7 and selected 20 poets to perform a set of poetry for PoetsDrum.
Edwin Jordan, a poet in the Army stationed at Fort Belvoir, was invited to perform for the PoetsDrum taping Friday night.
"I try to have a mix of spiritual and worldly views [in my pieces]," Jordan said.
Jordan plays with the theme of familial relationships in "Voices," a story inspired by his uncle, who used to be a drug dealer.
"It talks about [my uncle] from the streets, to his relationship with his woman, to his incarceration, and to being touched by the Lord," Jordan said.
Jordan, who has been performing poetry since 1998, said that he performs under the name Jodie Thrill.
"'Thrill' is what I try to do onstage," he said with a laugh.
Eric L. Farrell, a poet from Woodbridge, got his start performing at Virginia Union University in Richmond six years ago after performing a piece he had written for a young woman he had a crush on. Farrell said that some of his peers seem surprised to see him performing.
"I'm a very reserved person," Farrell said.
Farrell, like Jordan, said he tries to touch on life's problems, such as substance abuse, in his poetry.
"I try to personify them in my poems so people who haven't gone through these problems can understand them," he said.
Through GA Productions, Gregory said he hopes to take four or five poets on tour to local colleges to help give the young poets more exposure, as well as introduce more people to performance poetry.
"I just want to touch a lot of new people who may not know poetry," Grogory said.
Gregory said he will be conducting auditions for episodes 5, 6 and 7 of PoetsDrum in July. Information will be available on the Jazz Poetry Cafe's Web site, jazzpoetrycafe.net.