Mid-Winter Open Mic, January 31

This one-off (how many mid-Winters are there anyways?) was sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writer’s Guild & held at Mojo’s Cafe & Gallery, 147 4th St., Troy, NY. The host was the Vice President of the HVWG, Mary Panza. Mojo’s is a pleasant store front coffee house with a small stage ringed by paintings, with an eclectic variety of seating. I was able to find a comfy loveseat next to a small table on which to rest by latte, & a good angle to take photos of the readers.

First up was long-time Albany poet/artist, the Piñata Queen, A.C. Everson, who she was reading “a downer from long ago,” a piece titled “Slut,” but celebrating 40 years sober. I followed with an angry Winter poem, “Winter Argument,” then an old piece (may not have even been read out previously), variations on “YMCA.”

Isaiah Cuesta read a couple of untitled pieces, one beginning “I sleep on the deathbed of a matriarch…” a memoir, then another about being in bed, perhaps a different one. Amanda performed an intense (aren’t they all?) Slam poem about disassociated anguish. Both of the pieces Graydon read dealt with words/not words, the first sounded like an apology, “I want my words to mean something…” & contained the provocative line “… everything is true if it rhymes;” the second piece was inspired by a character in a fantasy novel series & was titled “A Good Way to Make Robots Talk.”

Melissa admitted that she had never read before at an open mic (a virgin), & showed & talked about her visual art, the first a painting titled “Embrace Tranquility,” then an abandoned table top she had painted, explaining the significance of the colors as a litany of trauma (she is a disabled veteran of the Marines), then a piece in rhyme a “Neuo-Spicey Anthem.” Carol Durant also did a piece in rhyme, “Our Ancestors,” then another that referenced her ancestors, “In My Hair.”

D. Colin’s first piece was a meditation on how many of us who have written political pieces over the years have “… already written the poem of oppression…” (or are they separate parts of the same poem written over time?), then from her one-person play Psalm 91, the final poem in the work. Sean A. said his poem was “about everyone I have ever met …” about conflicts built on repeating lines.

Rhonda Rosenheck began with what she said was an old poem, about neighbors, “Piñatas” then 2 pieces each made up of a series of Haiku, “After the Blizzard” & “Tavern Haiku.” Jeffrey was a late add to the list, I guess inspired by what he heard to read his own work, a tale someone had told him, “From Across the Room.” 

Our host, Mary Panza, read what she described as a “group poem” created from lines that she had heard at the Unspoken Word Main Showcase in October, then another from lines from the poets who read today — such a piece is also known as a Cento (from Latin for “patchwork” as in a quilt), defined as “… a poem made entirely of pieces from poems by other authors,” a practice D. Colin did regularly at the Poetic Vibe reading/open mic series she some years ago. 

Check the events listing on the website of the Hudson Valley Writers Guild for other such community events throughout the Capital District, including other events at Mojo’s Cafe & Gallery.