Went to an open mike poetry thing with Joanna, cause she was reading there. Now I've been to many a poetry open mike, mostly somewhat sad affairs, safe spaces for slightly lost people. This one was different.
Standing room only for the audience, the place was so packed. And the groovy announcer fluffed the crowd and talked about good vibes and got people to cheer on command.
Of the ten randomly selected poets about half of them were actively professional and a third were off book on their poems.
They were properly miked in and there were stage lights.
People whooped and cheered. For every act.
There were the open mike poets and then a band, rap over groovy guitars, which was actually good, and then a professional poet, who spent fully half his time vamping and joking with the audience. He had a story about doing guerrilla poetry and getting thrown out of a bakery.
The room laughed warm.
A DJ played bridging tracks.
Oh London you city of art and life. This stuff is alive on your streets not something we do to feel good about ourselves but something we do to feel good.
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