The Benefits
There is much to gain from performing at open mics. You can express yourself, improve your public speaking, raise your profile, meet fascinating and creative people, help to foster a thriving artistic community, and add just a little more aesthetic oomph to the world.
You can also refine your tastes and your craft. Listening to other writers’ work can add to your appreciation of various styles. It can also influence your own voice. The audience, too, has sway. It is impactful for a writer to see, in real time, which parts of which pieces land best for an audience.
You don’t have to be so grandiose as to think open mics function to intone your very being into the cosmos itself (although in a manner of speaking they do). Your spoken word performance is likely worth it even if all you do is get up there, chop an anecdote about your cat into verses, and fling them, verbally, toward the audience.
But to enjoy the benefits of a spoken word open mic, you will first need to find (or create) one.
How to Find an Open Mic
The fastest way to identify open mics near you is to search online. Perhaps local press or arts-communities have posted an Events Calendar for you to browse. Social media groups and event pages are similarly useful.
There are also more traditional means of finding venues, be they via public bulletin boards or word of mouth in local bars, libraries, or coffee shops, etc.
One thing to look out for is the specific type of open mic on offer. For example, who is it advertised for? Some open mics are open to everyone, others are for specific organizations or demographic groups of which you may or may not be part. There are many other considerations regarding format. What is the venue’s vibe? Will you feel okay with performing in that setting? What kind of performances are are even allowed there, for that matter, and at what length? Some venues (and audiences) prefer music only, poetry only, and so on. Some are mixed-format but offer you precious little time on stage, thus limiting your selection.
If you cannot find an open mic in your area, you may have to create one. That may seem like a big task, but it does not need to be so daunting. Proprietors of local venues near you may already want to host more events. The trick is to make it easy on them. If you commit to hosting and establishing the open mic as a regular / semi-regular event, the people who run the venues are likely to give you the chance.
Whether you’ve found or built the open mic, there may still be some obstacles which threaten to hamper your expression there. Among these obstacles, for many, is stage fright. See my next post for tips on overcoming stage fright at an open mic.
Jim Mack Writes 