02.15.2023 | Event Recap and Photos from our Untitled Open Mic and "I think I ____ You" Showcase

It was the day after Valentine’s, but we were still showing the love throughout, both in the open and our special showcase feature. For the open mic, we had poems about fathers and mothers as well as Neal’s “20 Reasons Why I Made it to 20,” a shout-out to self-love, Ben doing a relationship poem filled with Blink 182 references, Joe reading a piece about the love-triangle that helped to create Rodin’s famous sculpture, “The Kiss,” and Sanary Phen returning to sing Lauren Hill’s “X-Factor.”

And all that was before the feature.

As we’ve done a few times before, we invited a sampling of poets from our community to share poetry on the theme of love – in its broadest sense – and we got a full smorgasbord of relationships. Chris Ahsley gave us their rich, sensual poetry with “Cupid’s Diet” and one about “swimming in circles in your love pool;” Jean Goldsmith did a poem about domestic harmony (“dreamcatchers in every corner”) and one about mothers (both biological and adoptive) who taught her grace; Annah Phen brought the venom for a kiss-off poem, “Priorities,” and then sweetened the mix with “Love You Mostest.” Mike Reagan and Kris Rouille traded off poems about their grandfather and “Love Becomes Me” before finishing with a duo piece that chronicled six years of their relationship. Then Peter Vann rounded out the feature with an old poem of unrequited love, “The Closest Thing I Have to a Boyfriend is Peter,” and a new, sexy one that begins, “Where have you been all my life?”

Of course, that wasn’t quite the end because Ricky Orng finished the night with his improv magic, taking random words from the audience and somehow turning “southside,” “cappuccino,” and “cauliflower pizza” into a poem, “Love is like…,” which rocked the house.