With the COVID-19 situation, our in-person Open Mic Night meetings were temporarily derailed. However, we want to keep our poetry community engaged. Stay tuned for new Poetry options this Open Mic season!
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 but…
There is a hitch in our plan for a public meeting. We will continue to present via Zoom, at least for a bit.
Check back here for updates.
Next Open Mic
Wednesday, September 8, 2021,
7:00pm.
Host: Jen Lynn
Jen Lynn is a poet, teacher, student, human, lighter of fuses. She enjoys finding and sharing poetry in unexpected places: sometimes on rooftops, sometimes in the passenger seat of a precarious vehicle while traveling upon unmarked roads.
Jen earned her Bachelor of Arts from Central Washington University and will be returning this fall to pursue a Master of Arts in Professional and Creative Writing. She has spent time raising and homeschooling five children, farming apples, and teaching students to drive and to write. She is one of the newest members of the Yakima Coffeehouse Poets board of directors, a member of the Inland Poetry team, and the incoming director of LiTFUSE, an annual poetry workshop in Tieton, WA. Some of Jen’s work can be found in The Shrub-Steppe Poetry Journal, Manastash, and on picturesofpoets.com.
Jen lives on the edge of the upper valley, between Yakima and Tieton, surrounded by Honeycrisp apple trees and sagebrush. Greeted each morning by a view of Cowiche Hill and remnants of the old family farm, she resides with her husband, three youngest children, and a bearded dragon.
Virtual Open Mic Nights may continue, the schedule is uncertain.
In that case, a ZOOM link 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.