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Open Mic's

I was thinking that as we're a 'family' of poets it might be nice to have a few people leave information about Open Mic's in their area or ones they know of at least. I know I am always hunting them out even if I don't get up I like to listen to new poets and their material. Thought it may be beneficial to anyone curious to go along in their area.

Melbourne, Australia : Dan O'Connell Hotel - Every Sat. afternoon 2pm followed by an Irish Music Session
Denver, Colorado: Four Leaves Coffee Shop - Every Thursday night 7pm

Those are the ones I know exist in the world. I am sure there are more. Feel free to add some to the list.As I travel a bit I like to check out ones if I am anywhere near them.

Comments

dan o'connell pub?

good grief!
who would have thunk it?

i'm in the northern suburbs, about a half hour
from dan's...have had many a beer there over the years...
and learnt to avoid it on st pat's day!

friend of mine lives on the corner
are you melbourne metro?

thank you for posting this ... have never been
to an open mic anywhere

am now quite excited at the possibility,
and easy availability of something not experienced before

cheers
p

I live in Maribyrnong and yes Dan O'Connell's is the place, sometimes not that well patronized during AFL season lol but every Saturday they do it, it's on their website and I have been there on St Pats lol and fallen out of there at some ungodly hour of the morning. They are great and there is no pressure, the other place for lots of info on this type of stuff is a tiny bookshop called Collected Works in Swanston St, first floor 37 Swanston St the owner Chris Hemmsley is a plethora of info on those type of things and the bookshop is a delight for poetry and philosophy. :)

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment

I don't do 'open mic' events, being painfully shy and having a tiny voice, but I do know that the involvement of poetry in the 'Winter Words' literary festival (held late Jan early Feb each year) in Pitlochry, Scotland, is starting to feature poetry more prominently. Pitlochry is only a small town, but it has the large and famous 'Festival Theatre', and the annual literary festival has had many interesting guests in its main auditorium. I'll name a few. Author Louis de Bernieres, TV presenter and writer Sally Magnussen, actor Brian Blessed, comedian Phil Cool, politician Michael Portillo.

At this year's festival there was a 'poetry busker' and a few free events at the festival shop in Pitlochry's main street. These didn't work too well. However what certainly did work was a 'Poetry Please' event which was organised at very short notice when another event had to be cancelled. It was based on the format of the BBC radio programme of the same name. Festival-goers sent in requests for their favourite poems to be read out. However, in this event people were also allowed to do the reading aloud themselves, and even to read one of their own poems. There was also the option of having one of their poems read aloud by the 'resident' readers (the festival organiser and the poetry busker).

This event will probably become a regular part of the festival from now on.

___________

Nah pop no style, a strickly roots.

Sounds interesting Marie, I am sure some of the Scottish people here will know of the festival. I just wanted something that we could all join in and share for the people who are not shy like you and me for that matter lol I always have visions of people throwing rotten tomatoes :P But one day I might get the courage to stand up and do one. I've been to some in Virginia with TomisB and it was fun to listen too but still was not game to get up.

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment

Well I do know that a lot of my poems featured in the busker's repertoire along with poems by Elise Stewart and by some of the better AP poets - he was pushing relatively unknown poets, bless him. :)

I'll speak to him again nearer to the time - he has the ear of the festival organiser.

There is a precedent in this part of the world for pelting poets with vegetables (I know tomatoes are fruit, but I am wise enough never to serve them in a fruit salad). William Topaz McGonagall, the bard of Dundee and celebrated writer of the English language's greatest bad poetry, had a dish of peas thrown at him by an irate publican.

M

___________

Nah pop no style, a strickly roots.

They have one in nearby Greenville,S.C. but I've not been to it as my work is not good enough yet. Will track down location and days and post it as soon as I can...............scribbler

I think this might prove informative for everyone if we can get a list up of where they are, some people just out of curiosity might go and listen and learn how the spoken word sounds, it's beneficial to writing to actually do that. :) I hope we get lots join in this one.

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment

excuse my ignorance...could you tell me what is MIC?...

raj (sublime_ocean)

Raj, Open Mic just is a shortform for open microphone where the poets get together and stand up in front of the crowd and read their own poems aloud. It's impromptu performance of the spoken word.

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment

Thanks Chez for the clarification....i didnt know about this...is there a specific theme around which one has to build a poem? must be tough since you have said that it has to be done improptu

raj (sublime_ocean)

Raj you can take your own poems to read but sometimes they have little competitions such as to write a haiku about a certain thing and read it out. But it's very much whatever you want to bring to the night to read. It's more about listening and reading work to allow others to hear it and get their reaction to it

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment

Chez it must be like a feast served out by everyone for others to relish...sort of like sharing tiffin boxes with each other during a picnic...may be around a bon fire ...

raj (sublime_ocean)

What an excellent idea, we could have a permanent place onn the site where member-submitted open-mic infor could be placed.

Respectfully, Race

"Laws and Rules don't kill freedom: narrow-minded intolerance does" - Race-9togo

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Race_9togo

Excellent idea's I mean, I guess I've been on the 'other' site long enough to know what has often been discussed and with my travels and meeting some of the people from there in real life I've been able to experience some open mic's in different places. I am glad you think it's a good idea, it's fun to do and also helps get your own stuff out there and hear other new poets as well :)

Chez
"The perfect woman perpetrates literature as she does a small sin: as an experiment, in passing, to see if anybody notices it - and to makes sure that somebody does." - Nietzsche

author comment
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