by Anna Weaver | Nov 23, 2022 | tips for open mic performers, US open mics
In a part of Providence called Mount Hope, at the bus stop where 3rd Street tees into HWY 1, there’s a funky blue building. Walking up, you’ll pass a bench painted bright pink, a sign that says “Music, Food, Friends,” and a light pole feathered in...
by Anna Weaver | Sep 6, 2022 | All Posts, US open mics
After two and a half years, America’s only open mic tourist (that’s me) once again sallied beyond the borders of North Carolina in search of venues, shows, hosts, and performers to learn from. It took a few months of stalking searching, but I managed to find 3 shows...
by Anna Weaver | Nov 30, 2019 | All Posts, US open mics
For a flatlander like myself, New England is kinda…well…confusing. As in easy-to-get-lost confusing. As in bring-a-roll-of-thread, keep-an-eye-out-for-Jared-the-goblin-king confusing. It’s hilly, for one thing. The trees are too many and, by Oklahoma standards, too...
by Anna Weaver | Jun 22, 2019 | All Posts, US open mics
A couple years back, when I found the Riff Raff Arts Collective in Princeton, WV (pop: 5,822), it was hands down the smallest town where I’d found a poet-friendly open mic. A month later, the Paducah Writer’s Group in Paducah, KY (pop: 24,941), though small as...
by Anna Weaver | Apr 10, 2019 | All Posts, US open mics
Think of a thing you love doing. Sailing, maybe. Or knitting. Or bird watching or baking or basketball. Whatever. Now imagine having done that thing for, say, 2 hours, and now it’s 8:30 pm. On a weeknight. Random dude #1: Y’know, you can do 3 more hours of that thing...
by Anna Weaver | Apr 4, 2019 | All Posts, US open mics
I’ve said it before and I’ll surely say it again: Open mics are ephemeral. What happens there—whether there is Seattle or Gainesville or New York City or Paducah—on any given night hasn’t happened before and won’t happen again. By showing up, to perform or to listen...
