Sidelined Sidewalk Poets
After nearly three years of co-hosting a Spoken Word Open Mic with the Café Del Sol on the third Saturday of every month, local writers were stood up. This past third Saturday when we arrived at the café, it was locked.
Poets began to gather on the sidewalk. Questions were asked. Cell phones were used. Some came and left while others lingered, pacing the sidewalk and peering into the café windows.
Mara decided she wasn’t going to wait till she’s an older lady in a purple hat to sit on the sidewalk. “Where is our soapbox when we need it?” she asked.
Kyla got her hula hoop out of the back of her mom’s car.
Joe ate French fries that he got down the street at Oddfellas Cantina.
Cars and motorcycles drove by. Heads turned. Jayn pulled up a chair on the sidewalk next to Mara and chatted as if she was sitting on a front porch.
One couple who came for the entertainment pulled out their lap top and clicked on the Café Del Sol page. “See! It’s listed right here!” the unidentified man shouted.
“Yes, it was in the Floyd Press too,” I answered while balancing Kyla’s hoop on my hips.
Mara and I used the sidewalk as a stage for an impromtu street performance. With the setting sun as a spotlight, we did a piece from the OUTLOUD women’s collective that was recently featured at FloydFest. You can see and hear it HERE. We hope all is well with the Cafe owners and will keep you posted.
August 19th, 2007 2:29 pm
Hmm, yeah, why was it closed? Hope all is well there.
But you guys just proved your creativity once again. If there’s a sidewalk…there’s an open mic.
August 19th, 2007 5:53 pm
How great that the show went on even if on the sidewalk.
August 19th, 2007 6:52 pm
What a fine thing to do even if the place was closed! You folks in Floyd are amazing.
August 20th, 2007 4:01 am
Gee…I hope everything is okay with the owner’s, too! I know how often you all go there and how you and Mara play scrabble there and I feel like I know the place very well from seeing so very many pictures of it on your blog, PLUS, calling you there one day….I truly hope nothing has happened to them, Colleen…! Do keep us informed!
Love all the pictures of your Sidewalk Converntion!
August 20th, 2007 10:27 am
hey, musicians do it….why not poets! you could have put a hat out and busked. 🙂
i loved all the pictures….floyd is such a cool place!
August 20th, 2007 10:58 am
i AM CONVINCED THAT PEOPLE in small towns KNOW how to live.
August 20th, 2007 12:06 pm
It appears that Sally left for vacation (not vacaton) on Friday and just forgot. Oh well. No dire emergencies, just oversights. We did have fun anyway, though I really felt for the poets who traveled long distances to read.
BTW, Colleen–it’s KYLA, not Kayla.
It appears that Sally left for vacation (not vacaton) on Friday and just forgot. Oh well. No dire emergencies, just oversights. We did have fun anyway, though I really felt for the poets who traveled long distances to read.
BTW, Colleen–it’s KYLA, not Kayla.
August 20th, 2007 12:52 pm
Oh, I know that! Look at the second to last photo. I’ll fix the misspelled one.
Dylan’s step-daughter’s name is Kaylee and somehow I strangely mix both names together.
August 20th, 2007 1:00 pm
Looks like Mara has a poem on her pants! 🙂
Ode to a cafe owner
Open your doors
Let us in please
If you don’t
We’ll sit on the street
Ok, I’m a horrible poet.
Greece pictures will definitely be posted upon my return.
August 20th, 2007 1:38 pm
I get messages like that on my answering machine all the time. It says: Speak in rhyme if you’re so inclined.
More on Mara’s poetry pants here: http://looseleafnotes.com/notes/2007/05/a_house_in_the_road_and_maras.html
August 21st, 2007 5:48 pm
Wow, that’s unfortunate. The idewalk is fabulous and all but access to drinks and a cool place to sit might have been nice too.
August 21st, 2007 8:08 pm
What is that saying? Bloom where you are planted? Anyway, it looks like y’all made the best of the situation!
March 14th, 2010 6:07 pm
[…] fun times there, mostly Spoken Word nights: like the time is was done in costume, with a puppet, on the sidewalk, as a memorial to a friend who died, as a celebration for a local literary publication. How about […]