When Miyana Sarver wrote down her five-year plan for Poetry on Peter (POP), one of her only goals was to see the biweekly event spread and expand from its beginnings at Peter’s Street Station. For years, Atlanta’s creatives packed the space at 333 Peters St. SW, surrounded by music, art, and talented poets and musicians who stood up on the sacred stage every other Monday to serenade, soothe, and put soul and poetry in motion. What started as a passion project turned into the heartbeat of Peters Street and became a launchpad for the city’s emerging Black talent.
Now the poetry event is celebrating five years, and Sarver said she has exceeded the hopes and dreams she first wrote down. POP has relocated from Peters Street Station after outgrowing the space’s capacity, and Sarver has also established a POP branch in Birmingham that hosts its own shows. Beyond expansion, POP has made a name for itself within Atlanta’s entertainment and arts scene, becoming its own Night at The Apollo as it creates a safe and brave space for Atlanta’s most promising artists.
“Our ancestors and the previous generations before us had these places where they could go often, and people just knew it was a household name; I feel like Poetry on Peter has become that. Anywhere I go and I mention Poetry on Peter, even if they don’t know I’m the founder, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah!’ Now people are walking up to me in the grocery store like, ‘You’re the founder of POP,’ or I’ve been out of town in a completely different state, and somebody’s walked up to me to tell me they follow the page,” Sarver said.
“It’s just really nice to see it grow into what it is now. It’s just unbelievable. I feel blessed. It’s humbling. It’s really exciting to be celebrating such a big milestone. I’m really grateful, and it makes me feel if I can accomplish that in five years, then whatever I write down for my seven-year plan is going to be even better.”
To commemorate five years of POP, Sarver and her team organized an anniversary special featuring POP veterans, local poets, and a musical performance from Sarver herself. A marquee outside of Vinyl at Center Stage welcomed guests as they trickled into the live music space on a Monday night. Familiar blue and red hues lit the stage while POP’s in-house band Vibe Ktrl did just what their name alluded to, bringing the romantic, neo-soul vibes that immersed every guest and poet in their own “Love Jones” soundtrack.
While the space was new and an indication of just how much the event had grown, the energy was still the same. Strangers became family and music and poetry were the elements that bonded everyone together. The rules stayed the same: have fun, give the poets energy, and mingle.
The night was filled with explosive to gentle poets who waxed poetic about everything from love to heartbreak, healing to emotional baggage, and growing up to chasing dreams. The audience swayed, bobbed their heads and yelled when the cadence of words written on paper were given life on POP’s sacred stage. What POP takes, it also gives, providing a safe and inclusive space of vulnerability and acceptance.
“I kind of keep my head down so much working that I don’t really look up to see the success. But sometimes I look up sometimes and I’m like, ‘Oh, people are making names for themselves.’ It just makes me understand that what we’re doing is important, it’s impactful, and that the formula is working. As an entrepreneur, that means a lot to me,” Sarver said.
That’s what keeps the founder and curator going. Sarver said she recognizes that artists are depending on POP for advancement and to achieve equity that they didn’t have before. What other corporations overlook when it comes to Atlanta’s tastemakers, POP embraces and lifts up.
“It helps me understand that it’s bigger than me. Beyond what I feel, I have to keep it going because it is impacting people. People are thriving. Artists are coming here. Labels are reaching out, like, ‘Hey, we need them to come here.’”
Throughout it all, Sarver has kept the majority of the same team she started with and it’s a loyalty she doesn’t take for granted. Bittersweetness filled her tone when she reflected back on the early days of POP. From the hard days of running a, then, weekly event to trying to organize the best possible show for their growing audience, Sarver said it means the world that she can look over her shoulder and see the same people that have seen so much of her tears, frustrations, joy and confusion.
The anniversary celebration was also a moment for Sarver to shine as she performed songs from her upcoming debut R&B album “Stories of the Yearner” for the first time. At the end of the performance, Sarver was in tears as the community she helped build chanted her name.
“Lately, I’ve been getting feedback from a lot of peers. I prayed for something very specific, and I guess God’s formula made me understand it was to tell every person that has been impacted by POP to reach out.
“Knowing how it’s impacted people, how it’s formed relationships, marriages, successful business partnerships, saved people’s lives from depression and suicide ideation, and made people who were really being affected by the loneliness and solitary epidemic connect back back with their community and creativity is one of the things I’m most proud of about POP.”
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Laura Nwogu
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