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Open Mic Highlights
• Shout out to the large group of newcomers who signed up early on the mic this week, including 2nd-timer Shy and Sydney from West Tennessee, and Alyna from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Some unexpected onomatopoeia, whispering, singing, and other dynamic “Freak shit” (© Myles Taylor) from first-timer Julian
• “I’d like to go home but I don’t think it’s there anymore” – Emma on transitioning and outgrowing their family
• “Peeled grapes for eyeballs” – Nick Roberts
• Elizabeth’s poem “Loving you on the first 60 degree day of the year,” which the whole audience resonated with (it was briefly 70 degrees on Tuesday but went back down to 30-40 degrees by Thursday and Friday)
• “I count the days since I’ve mourned my innocence” / “What is falling if not waiting to be caught” – Kaitie D
• Bobby’s magical realism poem about meeting your partner’s parents who live many light years away, and newcomer Emily fitting right at home with a poem about “the moon, rage, and feminine trauma”
• First-timer Delaney’s poem “Women Begrudgingly in STEM,” which had an incredibly inventive list of dream professions that they would like to try out instead of being a protein chemist
• Myles’ “In therapy at the end of the world” which urged for the present to be referred to as a time of fascism instead of labeling it as “uncertain times”
Feature
We had the second preliminary slam of the 2026 team selection this week! 8 more of this year’s top slammers faced off head-to-head, with a space in the finals reserved for the top 4 scorers! See below for my raw notes on each poem during this incredible slam!
Round 1
• Ember: “We are the river folk living in the current of time” / “We held hands for 48 raindrops” / “I took that stone you saved and hid its magic in poems” / 24.0
• Jarvis: The patron saint of Mexico visits Trump’s White House / “Threads of moonlight lift her” / Cartography lines and borders are imaginary / The White House is “a patch of urine frothing at the scalp” 27.9
• Aparna: “Man lies / Wait let me start over” / “Man applies for green card / Man is denied” / “A tiger chased me up a banana tree and I forgot to be afraid” / “I eat my history” / 29.2
• Kelsey: “We have to talk about the movie Rosemary’s Baby” / “Physicians’ puppeteer my body” / “A cycle of violence is a plot point” / “Body autonomy is met with fear tactics” / “How much hell can a holy body hold?” / 26.4
• Mugs: To my 3-year-old daughter / “You hate sauce but have a joy that adults don’t have access to” / “If you are queer you will be 3rd generation queer” / “We named you after the history of pride month” / “I will wait for you at the corner of hope and action” / 26.9
• Mary: “She is a poorly written character” / “She doesn’t pass the Bechdel test” / “Maybe she was abused” / “The writers aren’t helping us here” / “She is annoying” / “A washed up carbon copy of all the characters she was before” / “You have to give it to the actor” / “She looks at the screen and asks the viewer what to do” / 26.3
• Winston: Poem framed as a PBS infomercial / “The tv show Arthur taught me more about being a human than Jesus ever did” / “We here at PBS will accept anything / your car, your blood, your fleeting glances” / “I grew up on PBS, you wouldn’t take that away from me, right?” / Incorporates audience members in the poem / The audience seems to enjoy leftfield humor more than the judges / 25.6
• Logan: “My aunt asks everyone in the room, have you ever contemplated suicide? / I wonder how she knows my answer” / “I was given this body and it’s trying to kill me” / 27.6
Round 2
• Jarvis: “I want to be a fortune giver” / “I want all scales to malfunction and say we are beautiful” / “And we are all wailing a joyous song” / “And the puddle dries itself before you step in it” 27.2
• Mugs: Waking up to find your partner’s soul has escaped overnight / “The limp damp cold of our bed” / “I will always keep growing our love one day at a time” / 28.5
• Kelsey: “The first truth I learned about my body I will never write about” / The fear of giving birth / The rights of a pregnant women / The right to having an abortion / “As if I could CBT myself outside of fascism” / Very raw / 27.7
• Logan: Moving day / The bonds of queer friendship when you live together / “Filthy” / Caring about queer safety, joy, and laughter more than cleanliness / 27.7
• Aparna: “My father and I have different swear words” / “Our fates are as fluid as we are” / “All stories are about lying” / “This language helps us heal even if it’s a lie” / 29.2
• Mary: “I am a rational logical person / I don’t create my reality” / “I have a stupid poet’s heart and I don’t know how to make it stop” / “I don’t hear my voice calling me from the inside every day / I am a rational logic person / I just wish I didn’t want” / “I am a child fighting monsters no one can see” 28.5
• Winston: “I was abducted by aliens in Taunton, MA and here is my report” / “The alien meets me in the form of Ronald Reagan” / “What do you hold sacred? / Watching glittering gods peek back at me from the window” / “The universe digested itself” / “Tune yourself into the cosmic background radiation / It sounds like a heartbeat” / 27.2
• Ember: “The fracture point of a conversation” / The cracks / “Scrubbing what can’t be removed” / “Darkness quivering tectonic” / “I am the shattered mirror of my own choices” / “One day I’ll take my first steps in a world we’ve broken together” / 29.0
Final Scores
1st Aparna Paul 58.4
2nd Mugs Myers 55.4
3rd Logan Lopez 55.3
4th Jarvis Subia 55.1
5th Mary S 54.8
6th Kelsey Kessler 54.1
7th Ember Bricault 53.0
8th Winston Liao 52.8
Coming Up This Wednesday
This week we will have a feature from Philly’s Warren Longmire as well as our normal extended open mic!
Warren C. Longmire is a Black poet, performer, and technologist from North Philadelphia. His poetry and hybrid media work investigate race, surveillance, grief and hope through generative literature, interactive design, and live performance. His poems have appeared in Cartridge Lit, Action, Spectacle, The American Poetry Review, and Best American Poetry 202, with recent digital poetry featured by Taper, The Offing and the New Media Caucus. He is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
See you later! 🐊
– MFG 🚪
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