01.04.23 | Event Recap and Photos from our Untitled Open Mic and Mill City Slam Team Qualifier

Because of the impending slam, it was a relatively short open, bookended by Rikhav’s riff off of Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” and a family story from Ricky Orng’s latest poetry series investigating his roots. In between we had another chapter of Joei DeRosa’s story about Mookie, regulars Damien, Cayleigh, and Jean with their usual emotional, metaphorical punches in the gut, and even a first flight for one of our young FreeVerse! poets, Neliksha who did a poem for her mother, not coincidentally, in the house. Of course, even a short open is too much to recount all the readers, but we would be remiss in not noting the return of one of our most stalwart homies, Taylor Donahoe, who dropped in for a brief respite from finishing her law degree at Boston University (no slouches on these couches).

Then we jumped into the penultimate qualifier slam for the Mill City Speaks Team for 2023 – and all the slots were taken. Eight slammers starting out, but only two left with cash in hand (Mckendy Fils-Aime and Douglas Bishop). The last qualifier will be on the 1st of February, which will bring us to our Finals, where we bring back all the winners and runners-up, on the 1st of March.