Dolly Parton once said, “The real sparkle doesn’t come from the rhinestones on your dress; it comes from the light in your heart.” I love that!  Poets Playground’s Sparkle Page showcases the talent of Poets Playground’s consistent members.

Open Mic (Poetic Justice)

Poets Playground’s mission is to provide space for poets at all stages of their creative journey, generate new poetry, share and receive constructive, positive feedback, and build community.

Our first Open Mic will take place on September 19, 2026, at the Underdog Bar and Grill in Haledon, NJ. Doors will open at 6:30 PM. Sign-ups for the Open Mic slots will end at 7:00 PM, when we will start the open mic. We’ll space our four features out among poets at the open mic. We are looking forward to seeing you all there to enrich our creative community and expand our reach. Spread the word and share out the flyer. Let’s pack the house!

Features – Four in Total!

I. Buenaventura (a.k.a Patrick)

I. Buenaventura (a.k.a Patrick) is a New Jersey-based poet whose work draws from their lived experience as a trans person to advocate for the queer community. Holding an MFA in Design + Technology from Parsons School of Design, Patrick uses poetry, film, and spoken word to explore themes of identity, transformation, and empowerment. They authored and illustrated “Your Body Is Your Weapon: The Little Self-Defense Handbook”—a free verse guide for all women that earned a Writer’s Digest Book Award Honorable Mention. Patrick also serves as a producer for the Jersey City Poetry Festival and on the Newark LGBTQ Film Festival selection committee, aligning their creative practice with LGBTQ+ activism aimed at fostering authentic storytelling.

Ann E. Wallace

Ann E. Wallace, PhD, served as 2023-24 Poet Laureate of Jersey City, New Jersey. She is the author of three full-length collections: Keeping Room (Nixes Mate, 2026), Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Kelsay Books, 2024), and Counting by Sevens (Main Street Rag, 2019). Her work is anthologized in The Nature of Our Times (Paloma Press), The Big Brutal Act (Harbor Editions), The Long COVID Reader (Long Hauler Publishing), and other collections, and her essays have appeared in Huffington Post, USA Today, and other media outlets. Wallace hosts and produces The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants by the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. She holds a doctorate in English Literature from The Graduate Center of The City University of New York and is Professor of English at Kean University—Jersey City. Her work is online at AnnWallacePhD.com.

Tony Jordan (TJ)

TJ is a photographer, curator, musician, audio engineer, graphic designer, and, to top it off, an award-winning spoken word poet based out of Jersey City, NJ. TJ’s poetry beautifully expresses his relationship with love and pain through storytelling and wordplay. Even though he has only been writing poetry since 2023, he is no stranger to the poetry scene. He has performed at events throughout NJ, NY, and Philly/featured at notable venues such as BRIC House in Brooklyn, S.O.Bs with Poetry Me Please, the Bowery Poetry Club, Columbia University, and Cryout Cave under the Barrow Mansion in Newark, NJ. He is also the founder of a nonprofit known as *The Golden Fleece Collective*, an organization focused on collaboration and making sure every creative in his network “eats”. He is also the co-creator of a thriving poetry community, **The PAC** (*Poets Across Communities*), which unites poets from around the world. 

Isabel Cruz

Isabel Cruz is a Puerto Rican poet and Emeritus Youth Poetry Ambassador for the Paterson Poetry Festival. Among other awards, she won the 2024 Five College Prose & Poetry Prize and the 2024 Elizabeth Babcock Prize for Best Poem. Her work is published or forthcoming with/in The Poetry Society of New York, I Feel Nothing Like Good, Brooklyn Poets: Poet of the Week, ART SICK, By The WAYE, CAESURA 2026, and Acentos Review, among others. In October 2024, she was a Featured Poet at the Dodge Poetry Festival, and in 2025, Cruz was named a Brooklyn Poets Fellow and awarded a Full Scholarship from The Poetry Project.