Wednesday Night Open Mic




The Nuyorican Poets Cafe




Yesterday (Wednesday) I attended one of the biggest venues for poetry/spoken word in NYC - The Nuyorican Poets Cafe (Nuyo) - to attend their Open Mic Slam which occurs every Wednesday minus the first Wednesday of every month. I plan on performing next Wednesday (June 2nd), so I thought I'd go down and scout it out and get a feel for the atmosphere.




Surprisingly (maybe just a little bit) it was a comfortable atmosphere to be in; unlike the Friday Night Slam atmosphere that is just heavy due to the oversized crowd and pre-selected competitors.




The host for Wednesday slams is Jive poetic, who's a dope host and even doper poet, who made the Nuyo extremely comfortable for the poets there, especially the new ones. There were tons of poets who had mix styles and varied topics from hip hop to domestic abuse, being from a foreign country, parenting and finally...."dick balloons" aka condoms.


Some poets seemed like they've been up on stage before due to their awesome delivery via flow, gesture...their all around vibe; they seemed comfortable. Then their were others who were brand new, evidently shown when they forgot their lines and desperately struggled to start from the beginning to remember. Even some veterans stumbled a bit. It's always unexpected and frustrating, but we all go through it.


All in all, everyone there was welcoming, as the spirit of the Nuyo always is. Very encouraging group of supporters even against the tough scoring from the judges.


Time to gear up for the stage.


(I should be working on this poem instead of writing this)


Paaayce

Thursday, May 27, 2010

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