Get Born Gets Dead

​ That's the headline on the blog of the local reading series and poetry 'zine and, frankly, we don't think we can improve upon it. After three years, Get Born has decided it's not needed anymore and will be...um, getting unborn, after one final reading once the weather gets warmer.

"We started readings in the first place because there weren't any others like that at the time," says Joseph Sulier, one of the group's leaders. "There are a lot of readings now. It's served its purpose."

Unlike other reading series in St. Louis, like River Styx, which featured established poets, the writers who read and published in Get Born were young and unknown. The readings and open mikes migrated around the city, from Duff's Restaurant to the Way Out Club to Tower Grove Park, and included performances by local bands. (The group also did readings at the Loose Leafe Lounge in Chicago.) The bimonthly 'zine, published most recently by Firecracker Press, was slim, but full of poetry unavailable anywhere else.

The Get Born poets will continue to do readings with other series that have sprung up in St. Louis.

"It's a lot of work with little reward," Sulier says. "A lot of us have other things going on, but we're still writing regularly and playing music."

The group's best epitaph may be its motto: "Long live the ballsy reckless youth of the mind."

You can view video of past readings here.

Related Article: "Get Born Again" (April 4, 2007)