The Yakima Coffeehouse Poets presents Open Mic Night on the second Wednesday of each month, September through May, usually held at the Larson Gallery, YVCC Campus.
Our Open Mic meetings have a choice — via ZOOM™ OR IN PERSON at the new Larson Gallery!
(Across the street from the old Larson Gallery)
Next Open Mic is scheduled for
Wednesday, September 11, 2024,
Featured Reader…
Elissa Ball
7:00pm
(Doors open at 6:00pm)
Elissa Ball is a poet, comic, and freelance journalist born in Yakima. She has been making zines and chapbooks since age 12. In high school, Elissa wrote for the Yakima Herald-Republic’s teen journalism team, Unleashed, during the program’s first and second years. In 2012, Selah’s Blue Begonia Press published her debut poetry collection titled The Punks Are Writing Love Songs. Elissa has also written two humor books: Personal Growth (2014) and More or Less (2018). Her writing has appeared in Seattle Weekly, the Spokesman-Review, RANGE Media, Pontoon Poetry, and the Inlander. She currently lives in Eastern Washington.
You can now attend Open Mic via ZOOM™ OR IN PERSON!
In person is at the new Larson Gallery, 1606 W. Nob Hill Blvd.
When we gather together in person, masks are optional.
Otherwise, a ZOOM™ link will be circulated by email the day before the event
for those of you who want to attend virtually.
If you wish to read, 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.