The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

An experience unlike any other, especially in spirit of our recent discussions about rap, slam poetry will rattle your bones and shake the words you can’t find from your lungs. Every tuesday under St. Marks theater, Penny holds his open mic night. While I don’t have a clue who penny is, he’s got quite the gig going on just beneath the streets of St. Marks Place.

For just a $3 cover, you can sit and listen to authentic, original, and powerful spoken word poetry form 9pm to 2am. I was more or less dragged by a friend down to the club, and took a seat hastily in the back wondering what it’d be like to be on the stage. I’d had a poem prepared in my notebook but didn’t particularly feel up to sharing that night. So I sat and observed the wonders of the human mind (and the heave of their lungs) bearing it all before the microphone. I heard songs of love, hate, regret, jealousy, lust, destitution, hunger, need, and even a need for better headphones.

Though I’ve written spoken word poetry before and performed before audiences and friends alike, unraveling my skin and letting loose all within in front of (educated) strangers has still proved to strike fear in my heart. The fear of rejection, the judging eyes crawling like ants up my spine. The unnerving trepidation that overwhelms your step as you approach the stool. It all seems so overwhelming, yet so human.

I found a parallel between our vies for attention and love in our private lives with the performance of the poet on stage. We unhinge our masks for our muse and they see us as we are, despite what we se in a mirror. With no other source of judgment than the content of our souls, our muse, whatever it may be, sees the best and worst sides of us. On stage, the audience sees all that you put out and all that you present. If your poem lacks passion and pride, the effect can be seen in the audience’s eyes.

I feel inspired to find the vigor and fire inside myself that the gifted writers who let it all out on stage possess, and look forward to a day in the future in which I too can stare into the crowd with my chest open wide.

http://pennysopenmic.com/