Speak Up!

Wednesday night, I read at the Speak Up Spoken Word Open Mike Series with two of my most favorite people in the world, Colleen Michaels and Kevin Carey. The series, held at the Walnut Street Coffee Cafe in Lynn, is run by storyteller extraordinaire Tony Toledo. An award winning storyteller in his own right, Tony makes everyone feel welcome, from poets to musicians to people who just want to share a story.

The crowd for this weekly Wednesday night event is a loyal one. It is an amazingly friendly, quirky, box-o-chocolates kind of happening--a cool series to close out 2011.

Tony Toledo




 

Clay on the guitar.

Joe spins a story for the crowd.

When we read "in the round," one of us leads off and the poet who follows has to come up with a poem that loosely flows with the first poem. So if Poet 1 writes a poem about a yellow bird, Poet 2 scrambles for a similar poem. Usually, you hear Poet 2 saying something like, "I don't have a poem about a bird, but I do have a poem with the color yellow ..."

Anyone who reads after me knows my poems are short. In the words of Mr. T, "I pity the fool who has to follow me in the round!" (I'm really the fool in between these two talents!)

At the end, we received the customary container of Fluff, signed by the audience.

(Did you know Fluff was created in Lynn? Well, now you do!)