Bermudian poet Denise DeMoura will launch her first full-length book of poems, "Break the Silence" on Sunday.

She will be the featured performer at the "Chewstick" open microphone reading at 7.30 p.m. at Champions Sports Bar on Reid Street.

A performance poet known as the "poet hitchhiker", she has presented her poems at various locations ion Bermuda and in the Maritime provinces in Canada, where she lives most of the time.

She is also the author of several smaller poetry "chapbooks", including "Heart-Beat of Healing", "Love & Anger", "God's Palm" and "Summer 2002 Celebrations".

According to a review ion the Halifax Sunday Herald, Ms DeMoura's "driving concern is social: She needs to ask us to consider abuse of all sorts - sexual, racial, environmental etc./ - and its grave consequences, while also seeking to promote reconciliation".

"Demoura is necessarily abrupt and directly serious, with poems intended for rapid fire delivery," the review says.