Open Mic Highlights: Life*Vest*Poetry

Friday, 8/23/19 @ Richmond Hood Company

“What doesn’t kill you, will make you only long for the day that does.”

– Thomas Fucaloro

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1. “Do you have sex with your gun?”

2. Haiku

If it’s not Sour

Don’t make me wait two hours

Unnecessary

– Tarik

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“Dating is kind of like Standardized Testing…”

– Zach Katz

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“Once my children are old enough to travel alone, I’ll start working on their eulogy.”

– Matt Figgz

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“I’ve walked away from so much to maintain this attachment.”

– Chemical X

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“I need to cleanse myself / And it starts now / It starts with YOU”

– C.E.M.B.S. (IG: black_bewty)

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“I know my dad… I just dress like I don’t.”

Comedian Ace Reyes didn’t waste any time bringing the jaw-dropping unfiltered comedy, a lot of F’d up stuff that was funny AF.

“Any crack babies in the house?”

Followed by, “Anyone born in the 80s?” A few people clap.

Ace, with perfect timing, “Yeah, those claps was all off-beat. Definitely some crack babies in here.”

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1. “I’m drinking my secrets…”

2. “To bless, that which broke you.”

– Renee Kroeker

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“I’m going to start light…because I’m going to hit you hard.”

– Featured poet, Jenny Pisani’s introductory statement

“Getting hit by a truck is a lot like being born…”

– from a poem written by Jenny after getting hit by a truck

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[M.A. Dennis reading from The Collected Poems of E. Ethelbert Miller]

Miller’s Law

Knowing one’s audience

is the first rule of a lynching.

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The Day After Addendum

– This journalist is still thinking about the expansive and cinematic poem read by Mr. Figgz. Not only did he use the word “thrice,” he never lost track of the different storylines. It was as if he was trying to poetically recreate the final episode of The Wire, the way he tied it all together.

– This journalist can’t forget how she said her body was sacrament, how you’d kneel before it for your last supper, how she gave him love good, so good it made him start speaking in Arabic.

– And what can this journalist say about Jenny Pisani? She’s the most honest poet I’ve ever heard on a Friday in August. When she told the audience she was going to hit them hard, she wasn’t lying; towards the end of her feature, there were two poems that carried an emotional tonnage that felt like getting hit by a truck. You can find Jenny on IG under: jennylovegood.

– And this journalist would like to give you a friendly reminder, sponsored by the beautifully-bearded bard, Thomas Fucaloro: Don’t forget to pick up your prescriptions at the comic book store!