Arts

Poetic Peace Arts celebrates 11 years of open mics and arts education

Poetic Peace flyer for first & third Wednesdays at Midtown Key Club.

This August marks 11 years of Poetic Peace Arts producing open mic sessions at local bars, coffeehouses, galleries and many other venues around town. Through the years, this literary movement has encouraged many artists to perform and teach such talents as oratorical and writing skills to young people and adults. These programs take place at recreation centers and schools. Many of the artists who come out to the bi-weekly Poetic Peace open mic at Midtown Key Club on 435 Third Street volunteer their time to teach creative writing at after-school and summer programs. They also take the time to grace our elder with literary arts as entertainment.

August 6 Poetic Peace at Midtown Key Club.

August 6 Poetic Peace at Midtown Key Club.

Back on August 6 of 2003, Poetic Peace Arts started out programming open mic sets with the legendary DJ Roger Riddle. Currently, this smooth cat who goes by the name of  DJ Ron is the official deejay for the sessions. Many of the artists who sign up to grace the stage are poets. However, creators from other disciplines are not excluded from coming out to show off their knack. Often times, actors, dancers, lyrical emcees, musicians and singers sign up, during the course of a night.

A lot of emotions are expressed from the participants at Poetic Peace open mics. The demographics for these type sets range from preteens to age 99. Sometimes, we feature local, national and global artists at the set. Poetic Peace Arts partners with other organizations, both nonprofit and for profit, to help with fundraising and other initiatives. Since January of this year, we have been holding Poetic Peace at Midtown Key Club on 435 Third Street. The open mic takes place every first and third Wednesday at 8 p.m. We will celebrate the 11 years on Wednesday, August 6 with the featured artists D.Cater plus Goodie Supreme who are local lyricists and Wednesday, August 20 with Red Storm, an HBO Def Poet, as the headliner.

Poetic Peace logo.

Poetic Peace. There is a cover charge of $5, which supports the program.