Name: Blue Notes: A Night of Poetry and Jazz
Start: 2026-03-29T18:00:00-04:00
Location: 8251 15th st east unit I, Sarasota, FL, United States, Florida 34243

In March, join us for Blue Notes: An Evening of Poetry and Jazz 🌀🎵
Celebrated Tampa Bay jazz ensemble MPM joins award-winning Sarasota poet Melanie Lavender for a night of original jazz, spoken word, and poetry with musical accompaniment. Also featuring renowned local poets IAM, Willa Tinsley, and our community— an open mic is available for musicians and poets to participate in this unique collaboration. Held at Streets of Paradise’ Love Act Repeat Hub, this event benefits street outreach services for the unhoused in Tampa Bay. The proceeds go directly to food, hygiene, and necessities for those experiencing homelessness and poverty.
March 29 2026, 6-9 pm
8251 15th St E, Sarasota FL
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/blue-notes-an-evening-of-poetry-and-jazz
$30, $15 for open mic participants and college students.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Melanie Lavender, a spoken-word artist and proud Sarasota native, stands as a vessel of resonant truth. Her journey began at Booker High School, where she first found the rhythm of poetry, refining her voice through sacred and secular performances across Florida. Influenced by life’s chaotic beauty and the deep soil of history, her work includes commissions for non-profits and the grant-supported “Newtown’s Proverbs: Love Letters to my Community.”
MPM is a collaborative jazz trio from St. Pete, Florida comprised of multi-instrumentalist Alex Malkovich, bassist Cooper Madden, and drummer Ayrias Pedigo. They create forward-thinking improvisatory music with deep roots in the history of contrasting musical styles, paying homage to their individual influences. MPM has performed at the St. Petersburg and Clearwater Jazz Festivals and venues across Tampa Bay.
IAM is a Boricua poet and artist whose words rise from ancestry, spirit, and lived experience. Rooted in ancestral work and guided by intuition, her poetry moves like breath — raw, tender, and rhythmic — weaving stories of love, grief, transformation, and rebirth.
Willa Tinsley writes, paints, and does street outreach in St. Pete, Florida. Her work honors all things slow and delicate, the unruly, the borders, the sacred work of caretaking.