The Venice Poetry Renaissance, a free Beachhead holiday event, Dec. 30, filled Beyond Baroque’s theatre with an enthusiastic crowd of poetry lovers. The readings were followed by a party featuring some of Venice’s best musicians at a local home.

The poetry event began with readings, and rare audio recordings, of the works some of Venice’s great beat poets, including Stuart Perkoff, Tony Scibella, Frank T. Rios, John Thomas and Philomene Long.

Contemporary poets then took the stage and showed that a renaissance in poetry was in full bloom.

Live readings were heard from Roger Houston, Krista Schwimmer, Hal Bogotch, Linda Albertano, Pano Douvos, Lynne Bronstein, Jim Smith, Mary Getlein, Karl Abrams, Peggy Lee Kennedy, Wayne Slappy, Suzanne Verdal and Hillary Kaye. An Open Mic brought still more poets to the stage.

The first all-Venice reading was followed by a showcase of Venice musicians including Peter Demian, Brad Kay, Alfred Johnson, Eric Ahlberg, Freddie Ginn, Sam Clay and Suzy Williams.

A high point of the evening was a rendition of Black Palm Tree by Demian and Moon Over Venice by Williams, both of which were joined by every voice in the house.