The Yakima Coffeehouse Poets presents Open Mic Night on the second Wednesday of each month, September through May, usually held at the Larson Gallery, YVC Campus, 1606 W. Nob Hill Blvd (across the street from the old Larson Gallery).
Our Open Mic meetings usually begin at 6:30pm (unless otherwise noted) with doors open 30 minutes before as a reception.
Next Open Mic:
A new Open Mic season has arrived!
Wednesday,
September 9, 2026 at 6:30pm
(Doors open at 6:00pm for a Reception prior to the Reading)
at the Larson Gallery
Featured Poet: Elissa Ball
Hi poetry lovers!
We’ve got a new season of poetry coming up on the ninth of september, doors open at 6:00pm, poetry starts at 6:30, and we’re kicking off our season with none other than Elissa Ball.
Elissa Ball grew up in unincorporated Yakima County, near Tampico. She released her first zine when she was 13. While in high school, she wrote for the Yakima Herald-Republic’s then-new teen journalism program, Unleashed. Since graduating college at Western Washington University in 2006, Elissa has written a full-length collection of poems (The Punks Are Writing Love Songs) published by Blue Begonia Press in 2012. In 2018, Cold Cube Press published an illustrated book of her jokes titled More or Less, her second humor book. For four years, she wrote a weekly astrology column for Seattle Weekly called Space Witch. Elissa’s journalism, poetry, and music writing have appeared in print media like the Inlander, Seattle’s City Arts Magazine, the Spokesman-Review, and Lilac City Fairy Tales. She occasionally performs stand-up comedy and currently lives in Spokane.
If you wish to read at our September Open Mic, please sign up via email:
Like the Poetry contest, Open Mic Night got its start at Allied Arts. The event was initiated in 2005 by local poet Elaine Smith. Then encouraged by the former Allied Arts director Elizabeth Herres Miller and her successor Jessica Moskwa. They felt a monthly forum where local poets could read original work would complement the annual contest. They were right.
Poets Claire Carpenter, Dotty Armstrong, Chuck Forster, Rod Nelson, Linda Brown, Ed Stover, Elaine Smith, and Mark Fuzie have kept Open Mic alive.
Open Mic Night was popular at the outset and remains so as a program now run by the Yakima Coffeehouse Poets. Come read a poem and meet your fellow Yakima poets.