Denver's Newest Brothel Is All About Poetry

Denver has boasted a number of brothels in its history, many of them in Market Street's infamous Red Light District, where such madams as Mattie Silks and Jennie Rogers plied their trade in the world's oldest profession. And now, just one street over, there will be another...but with a wink and a twist. This establishment is no House of Mirrors — it's Denver's own Poetry Brothel.

The project began with the Poetry Society of New York, an interactive poetry experience set up to mimic the decadence and ebullience of a turn-of-the-century brothel. Poets performing under pseudonyms will offer private, one-on-one meetings in candlelit back rooms worthy of velvet drapery and whispered rumors...and read their work for money. Upon entering, patrons will choose a performer that best suits their taste, one that will tickle their own poetic needs for the evening with a personal literary experience. Meanwhile, in the main room, much delight and debauchery await in an immersive cabaret that brings together poetry, burlesque, music, vaudeville, circus, performance art, mysticism and much more.

The Poetry Brothel launch party will take place on Sunday, October 13, at RiNo's newest club, Mockingbird, which the owners of nearby nightlife destination Beacon opened in August. Costumes and/or Victorian wear are encouraged but not required.

"I first met the Poetry Brothel people back in 2012 or so," says Melinda Cary, aka Madame Cybele CaryMel, who's leading the Denver arm of the Poetry Brothel's reach. And that reach is worldwide, including an impressive list of locales such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, London, Toronto, Berlin, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv and Mexico City, to name only a few. "I was writing a lot of poetry back then and was looking for a place to perform," Cary recalls, "and that's when I met Stephanie Berger."

Berger and Nicholas Adamski co-founded the Poetry Brothel in 2007 because they "desired to add a dash of decadence to the poetry community of NYC," according to Cary. "They read my stuff, and we talked about my music and theater background, and they invited me to come play."

Initially, Cary says the events were held in historic old speakeasies that still existed around New York. "There was one under one of those grates in the sidewalk, that open up to a stair leading down through this underground alley and up a fire escape to this door with a little sliding panel in it," Cary recalls. "You give the password, and then you enter into this opulent space, floor-to-ceiling Art Deco murals from the 1920s, moving walls with bookshelves and huge collections of gin, and so much beauty. It was magical." Cary says one of her favorite memories is performing at one of these events as a tap-dancing horse. "It was awesome," she laughs. "I was like: I knew that musical theater degree was gonna come in handy!"

That degree Cary mentions was earned at the University of Northern Colorado. "I did the Burning Man thing, but really, I'm a Colorado girl," she says. Which is why she came back home to Denver and ended up starting a different theater company, the Shamanic Dolls. "Also immersive theater," she says. "Ritual theater. We did a lot of activism, because this was back in 2016." She was stretching her creative muscles, trying out different things. "I even got back to my music," she recalls. "I recorded a song called 'Eat My Magic.' It still rocks! It was also very silly. I loved it."

And then came the pandemic. Once that subsided, Cary says, the group tried to come together again. "But what we were doing changed. We were getting into really deep shadow work," she says. "Personal journey, trauma recovery through acting techniques. We were also doing a lot of Butoh [a Japanese dance form that brings together slow and purposeful movement with extreme themes]. It was all fun and really interesting. But I felt like I couldn't do it the way I wanted to. I was still thinking in terms of big productions; I wanted to bring people to an experience, all shiny and weird, and have them go home with a dream that keeps working itself out in their heads for the next three months. I want to plant seeds of fantasy, of the bizarre, of the divine, of the absurd and the beautiful."

The Denver Poetry Brothel seems like an enticing way to achieve that goal. And Cary has considerable talent on hand to help her accomplish it: Aurora Poet Laureate Ahja Fox; author and erotica advocate Stina French; podcaster and psychedelia activist Matthew Duffy; and many more.

"The idea of the Poetry Brothel has always struck me as the perfect project for Colorado," says Cary. "The brothels that made up this city during the gold and silver mining era are what give Denver so much of its charm. This will be a wonderful nod to our Victorian roots. Denver is also such a mecca for the immersive arts. I know that the Poetry Brothel will be embraced completely."

Poetry Brothel launch party, 8 to 11 p.m. Sunday, October 13, Mockingbird, 2737 Larimer Street. Both VIP and general admission tickets are available through Eventbrite.