This is a "no-gimmick open mic" at Valentines (sometimes a "no-open-mic gimmick") presented by AlbanyPoets.com. There were a few of us poets with poems in our holsters & even a couple of poets at the bar who came to listen sans poems to read (are we that good?).
Thom Francis has the list in his head under a baseball cap with a "B" on it (for "Boss"?). I went first with a new, short line piece on the "ex-" titled "The Visit," then a "dream" poem & "Summer in California," which I like to read in bars. RM Engelhardt stepped up next with a poem he called "The Whores of Poetry," a litany/list bashing the poets who show up at open mics (note: not a good idea, this is your audience), then he read "Suture" (see my last Blog).
Dain Brammage showed up looking bit like the Unabomber but in a pleasant mood & read the first slam-style poem he ever wrote, "The Message Board Troll" in Dr. Seuss sounding rhythms & rhymes, then a piece about meeting a woman "At the Jazz Club."
Other interesting poets, mostly female, at the bar just shouted encouragement to us guys & made us feel, well, manly, I guess.
This happens -- or not -- on the first Tuesday of each month in the rock club known as Valentines on New Scotland Ave. in Albany, about 8PM -- look for the scruffy characters at the far end of the bar.
Not based on anyone in the poetry scene or audience Dan, based on mixed samples of people, types of people I've seen ~heard read over the last 18 years or so of open mics. ; ) !
ReplyDeleteR.M.