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Open Mic Highlights
• Phoenix’s piece discussing why they identify as Xenogender
• Julie River’s ode to Denver’s former poetry cafe, The Mercury (later known as The Pearl)
• Ed Gault’s “1-800-ANSWERS” poem dedicated to absurd prompts given by automated phone systems, and what happens when the automated system asks questions of you
• Scott’s nuanced and deeply symbolic tale of sexuality and water guns at a pool party, and Bobby’s persona piece about the guilt of the executor of Kafka’s estate, who was ordered to destroy all of Kafka’s work but instead published it all (yes, he may have woken up one day feeling like he had metamorphized into vermin)
• We had some tax day shenanigans where people could volunteer to see if we would give them a refund or deduction, which meant they would gain or lose some time on their open mic slot. Also, in honor of the upcoming Boston Marathon, March Penn read a poem that was 26.2 seconds long!
• The Haiku slam was also back this week! We had some moving work from Will S, a piece from Sue Savoy about how all Harvard Square bookstores are now banks, and fresh work from Iris, Carey, and Bobby. But it was new regular Danielle R who took the win in the final round over Kai. Danielle came well-prepared with three confident, humorous, and well-crafted pieces off the dome that set them apart from everyone else, and won them the $17 prize!
Feature
The crowd was stirring for a rare feature by Kaleigh O’Keefe! Kaleigh’s set revolved around activism, socialism, being trans and disabled, while also finding the time to sneak in some love poems. There were poem relating to their two top surgeries (“you scar beautifully, says the surgeon”), an ekphrastic poem (“Self Portrait in Pain”) after Frida Kahlo, a series of monostiches (!), informative pieces on political prisoner Leonard Peltier and socialist senate candidate Joe Tache, plus a poem about waking up 100 years from now in a post-capitalistic world, contemplating the idea that art doesn’t change the world but it changes people who can change the world. Thank you Kaleigh!
Coming Up This Wednesday
Come early, tonight will probably sell out as we will have a feature by the one and only Hanif_Abdurraqib! Check out his website and get ready for an amazing open mic and feature!
– MFG 🚪
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