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Denise duMaurier is a 2011 Merit Award winner for her poem, Conspiring. A former professional actor, she moved to Bellingham in 2010 to escape the Minnesota winters. She says:

“I read at open mics to ‘fly paper airplanes.’ Sometimes they work; other times they crash. Test pilot, then take ‘em home and revise.”

Good idea, good advice. Find local open mics on the NW Lit Events page.

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Here are some additional thoughts on open mics from Chris Jarmick:

“What better way to develop one’s voice than through sharing a poem out loud at a place where people are there to listen? …Can we hold someone’s attention for two minutes? Five minutes?

“…Do the words communicate with others? Can the words get responses and reactions from others? Are these responses and reactions what the writer intended or are they something different but no less valid?

“…Overcoming your fears gives you confidence in your abilities in other areas of your life… You will develop a stronger voice, both in terms of speaking and in terms of your writing.

“The open mic also serves an even more important purpose. It refines and develops your ability to listen…

“The open mic is one of the best educational experiences you will ever have. It will expose you to ideas, thoughts, experiences, techniques, cultures, opinions and much more than you ever imagined possible. You will also conquer fears and gain confidence as you participate. And more importantly if you want, you will learn how to become a better listener — which will enable you to continue growing, learning and creating.”

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Christopher J. Jarmick is a writer of poems, plays, short stories, reviews, articles and novels. He curates and hosts two monthly poetry readings and several other readings that almost always include an open mic. His latest book is Ignition: Poem Starters Septolets, Statements and Double Dog Dares. He is a PEN-USA board member and the former Executive Vice President of the Washington Poets Association. Here are some of Chris’s thoughts on why open mics are important:

“Public speaking is often cited as the number one fear people have. It is absolutely terrifying to stand in front of a room of people and speak to them. Many feel completely naked, exposed and utterly vulnerable when they do any form of public speaking. Fear restricts. Fear silences progress, destroys creativity, silences ideas… The fear can become so overpowering it constricts your vocal cords, making it almost physically impossible to speak.

“What better way to overcome this fear than by getting up at an open mic and sharing something you have written? What better way to learn how to be effective with your voice than through practice? And since the audience at an open mic have gathered to listen at least some of the time to others, you know you will not be ignored, that some will hear your words, some will listen. You will learn about your writing and your voice and your style of presentation through trial and error. It is less frightening and scary to learn at a place where others are also learning, where others are also overcoming their own fears and doubts. There is a common bond shared between audience and speaker. Many people in the audience will be getting up to do something similar to what you are doing, they already have an empathy toward your effort.”

We’ll have more thoughts from Chris Jarmick in a future post.

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James Bertolino’s poetry has been appearing internationally in books, magazines and anthologies for over 40 years. His first book was published in 1968, and his most recent of 25 titles, Finding Water, Holding Stone, appeared in 2009. Bertolino’s poetry has been recognized nationally by the Book-of-the-Month Club Poetry Fellowship, the Discovery Award, a Hart Crane publication award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, two Quarterly Review of Literature book awards and, in 2007, the Jeanne Lohmann Poetry Prize for Washington State Poets. Jim served on the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest committee in 2006, the contest’s first year, and has been emcee for the awards ceremony year after year. He has this to say about the value of open mics:

“Open mics serve as an essential opportunity for writers who are new to the stage, or have a new poem or story they’re eager to share. While I’ve been giving featured poetry readings at venues from coast to coast for decades, I still both value and enjoy open mic sessions — as a participant and audience member. While a featured poet or prose writer is likely to deliver a performance that is unified, the open mic venue is notable for its variety. Another key element of open mics is the emphasis on actually performing one’s work, rather than simply reading the work aloud. While open mic sessions aren’t exactly competitive, there is a tendency for participants to improve their delivery after experiencing other writers who are particularly effective in performing their work. Also, lest I forget stage fright, for some writers just getting up on stage and facing an audience can be valuable, both in putting their voices behind their work and in discovering how a well a given piece of writing will work when presented aloud.”

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Poet/Vietnam vet/toolmaker Malcolm Hall Kenyon has published 12 chapbooks of his poetry, including The Goat Island Battery and Expeditions to the Golden Triangle. He currently teaches English as a second language for the Whatcom Literacy Council and prefers, as he says, “the company of people set on fixing the world who have their sleeves already rolled up and grease on their hands.” He shares this musing on open mics:

I think the open mic at poetrynight has been crucial in my commitment to poetry. If the poet doesn’t have an audience, he is talking to himself. The peer group reading with me for the past 10 years has been a workshop, a support group, my main social outlet, a sounding board for my ideas, rhetoric, polemics. We are often said to have the most supportive open mic in the USA — this is the frequent comment by visiting poets from all over the hemisphere. I think that poets that stick strictly to the page ‘have all the words but none of the music.’ Poetry is also a spoken art, and the theater people among us have taught me that it is also a performing art. Poetry is about sound; and if you don’t speak it, there is no sound.

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Poet Carla Shafer, a founder of the Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater, is a two-time Walk Award winner: 2007 and 2010. You can see her reading her 2010 poem, Migrant, on YouTube, here. She shares the following (poetic) reflection on the personal value of open mic readings:

“Knowing I have Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater’s open mic to prepare for, I scrabble together a poem. Whatever has been quietly rumbling around in my head gets matched to the sighting just moments ago of a song sparrow eating and chasing an orange butterfly. Once again a poem reaches out to me and I had no idea that it would. By itself this moment is rich as butter. In the writing, the moment is reshaped into something new but reflective; however, when I read the poem aloud to a room full of attentive friends, I learn a lot about the words I’ve chosen, how they sound, and where the sense of the poem touches the listeners. Just as the poem now uncovers experience, reading the words aloud uncovers how even small things I witness might fit into the larger conversation. Is it bigger than the minutes it took to shape a fragment of the world into a poem? How I feel about the poem may not change in reading it aloud, but a new textual layer associates with it that I can almost touch. This encourages me.”

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Jim Milstead, a prolific poet, a generous reader and a 2008 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Merit Award winner, offers this comment on his open mic experience:

“When I first began reading at Village Books open mics I was very nervous. It was an ‘exposing my soul’ experience. Over the years I have gained confidence. I practice before appearing at an open mic, and this practice helps me detect errors, ungainly phrases, and uncertain directions. Furthermore I have learned that each audience’s response varies. What some members of an audience appreciate, other members may dislike. Rarely will everyone be pleased. As a member of the audience I obtain new ideas that help strengthen my own pieces.”

Read another of Jim’s poems, Collection, in the Bellingham Herald, here. Open mics on the calendar here.

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Of Jack McCarthy, the Boston Globe said, “In the poetry world, he’s a rock star.” Introducing him, Hope Jordan said of Jack: “unlike most rock stars, Jack McCarthy checks his ego at the door. This is a poet who always stays until the end of the open mike when he’s the featured reader. This is a poet who hosted a poetry show on cable television for five years, a show where local unknowns shared the stage with national superpoets. Jack has earned the respect and admiration of many of these top poets, and yet, his poems also appeal to people who say they don’t like poetry.”

Jack’s credits, prizes and poems are dazzling. He was a judge for the Sue Boynton Poetry Contest in its first year, 2006, and his publications include a book of poetry, Say Goodnight, Grace Notes, as well as chapbooks and recordings.

In his online essays, Jack talks about “Spoken Word, a term that in my mind is a virtual synonym for the Open Mike Movement” and illuminates the line between Spoken Word and “Academic” poetry.

Here are some excerpts (used with permission):

The first time anyone ever interviewed me about poetry I said, “American Poetry is like some ritzy academic town, like maybe Hanover, New Hampshire; the kind of town where if you work there, you can’t afford to live there. The Spoken Word Movement is a carnival that sets up shop on the outskirts of that town. The poetry slam is the freak show in that carnival, where people pay to stare at mutants. But evolution happens by mutation.”

Jack refers to Spoken Word as “a parallel universe” in which “poems were written with an eye toward performance” and writes

Let’s begin with generalities: Academic poets seem to believe that poetry should be difficult, written to be read, the language should be exalted, the meaning concealed, and that it’s the reader’s responsibility to follow the poet. Slam poets, on the other hand, seem to think that poetry should be accessible, written to be heard, in discursive language, its meaning — at least at one level — unmistakable, and that it’s the poet’s responsibility to hold the listener.

“…almost every slam poem begins its public life as a Spoken Word piece being read from a page at an open mike.”

There’s a lot more to read and know about Jack McCarthy on his website. Local (Washington State) open mics and slam poetry venues are listed on the NW Lit Scene page. Go listen. Get heard.

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Ryler Dustin is an award-winning poet. He is the author of Heavy Lead Birdsong and was a 2008 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest Walk Award winner. Here are a few of his thoughts on open mics:

“The whole reason I started writing poetry was the Bellingham open mic, poetrynight. I had never been exposed to contemporary poetry or heard living poets read their work. I think open mics like poetrynight can be powerful gateways to contemporary poetry, a world that many people in our society are completely unaware of. I think a lot more people would like poetry if they knew about poems written in the last twenty or even two hundred years.

“I drew more inspiration from the writers in the poetrynight community than I can express. Reading at poetrynight helped and will continue to help me remember what poetry’s all about: the people you are speaking to, not some abstract concept or theory. Poetry is about bringing people together, and a strong open mic like poetrynight helps me remember that.”

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Reading a poem on the page is entirely different from hearing it read aloud. For the poet, the act (and art) of reading out loud brings a new dimension to the words.

One of the best places to hear poetry and to read aloud in front of an appreciative audience is at an open mic. Some open mic readings happen every week, like poetrynight in Bellingham, Re-bar in Seattle and Café Zippy in Everett; others happen once a month or occasionally, such as the multiple open mics scheduled in association with the Chuckanut Writers Conference. Many open mics are held at all-ages venues.

We asked a few poets to reflect on the subject of open mics and will be sharing their thoughts here over the coming weeks. Meanwhile, have a look at NW Lit Scene and plan to hear and read some poetry soon.
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