Our Mission

What PV is All About

The Idea!!!
Port Veritas is a community based organization whose goal is to engage, enlighten, educate and entertain. Its focus is to provide innovative and exciting outlets for people of all ages to create and experience performance art of all kinds. Our philosophy is “Artists creating community, a community creating artists”. We offer educational seminars on Poetry Slams to local schools and host multiple music & poetry venues around the state of Maine.

The concept for Port Veritas came from regular readers and hosts of the Acoustic Coffee Spoken Word Series in Portland. This venue which was created by K Peddlar Bridges was Portland’s only weekly open mic poetry series. Eventually the series added the Second Tuesday Slam to its lineup. The Second Tuesday Slam is Portland’s longest running poetry slam. Formerly held at Granny’s and The Skinny it has now found a home at Acoustic Coffee for the past two years.

The reading was always well attended by the “hard core” regulars who were there week after week through rain and shine. However there were many nights with only those poets and perhaps a few strangers who would wander in to kick about some verse and prose. The question had to be asked. Where had all the poets gone? Portland was once host to poetry slams which filled rooms and stages with some of the best talent around, including one of the subjects of Paul Devlins film Slam Nation, Taylor Mali. Other monthly readings were seeing noticeable drops in attendance. So what to do?

In April 2007 the reading was moved to its current home at the North Star Café in Portland, ME. Since then their schedule has developed to include many distinct evenings. The Second Tuesday of every month PV hosts The Second Tuesday Slam. This night pits poet against poet and audience against judges as poets battle it out for a chance to compete in the National Poetry Slam each year. The third Tuesday brings in special guests artists presenting their work. The last Tuesday of each month is Micro Press Night. This evening highlights just some of the hundreds of small press publishers that comprise the New England publishing community. Every week there is an open reading prior to each feature. The open mic is open to poets, comedians, story tellers and musicians. Each artist is given five minutes to present their original works.