San Francisco’s Queer Open Mic

Hey hey! Whatcha doing this Saturday afternoon, say around 2 - 3pm?

Wanna come join us for an out-of-the-blue free-for-all Pride Extravaganza Queer Open Mic at the LGBT Center?

Of course you do!! Here’s the skinny:

QOM returns to its roots (give or take a few floors) for one day only! Past host Sherilyn Connelly joins present and future host Sarah Dopp in Room 301 for this show, which is likely to destroy the space-time continuum as we know it. (But what a way to go, am I right?) Open mic performers are welcome to perform art of any style as long as it is one (1) piece that is five (5) minutes or less. Spoken word, poetry, comedy, music, dance (interpretative or otherwise)–whatever your talent, share it with the rest of us!

And… wait for it… This magical moment of artgasm will be FOLLOWED BY A DANCE PARTY!!!!

There will be crazy cool stuff going on in the building all day long (or at least from 12:30 - 4pm), so come early and prepare to play! See you this Saturday!

The Queer Open Mic Returns
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
2pm - 3pm in Room 301 (get there 15min early if you plan to perform)
The San Francisco LGBT Community Center
1800 Market @ Octavia // 415.865.5555 // www.sfcenter.org

Listen up Cool Cats, Hot Dawgs, and the rest of the Underground Glitterati:  We’re about throw you a curve ball.

See, Queer Open Mic is happening on the “fourth Friday of the month” these days.  MOST of the time, you can cheat and just think of it as “last Friday of the month,” but NOT ALWAYS! The month of May is tricky tricky and if you’re not studiously counting dates, you might miss it, cuz it’s got five — count em — Five Fridays, Ah! Ah! Ah!

(That was in the voice of the Sesame Street’s The Count, btw, in case you haven’t had your coffee yet. Sometimes we’re funny and do voices. Sometimes we also wear Indiana Jones hats and put boobs on people’s heads. With their consent. Of course.)

So show up on May 22nd, the fourth Friday, if you want to be in the room when our resident Berkeley Slam rockstar, Trashcanpoet, makes every girl, boy, and the rest of us swoon with tripped out glee.

About Trashcanpoet

Trashcanpoet is the rhyme-spitting alter ego of Miles Gabriel Burke, an Oakland-based slam poet, writer and spoken word artist. He was first published at 17 and co-founded the alt/hip-hop group RUUDE in Atlanta before moving to the Bay Area, where he has been a finalist for Berkeley’s and San Francisco’s national poetry slam teams and has performed with Fella-Fem, The Men’s Story Project, Artists Against Rape, and the Queer Girl Theatre Project (of which he was the first male-identified member), among others. In addition to performing, he is currently working on a novel, Oaklandia, which is half semi-autobiographical and half pure unadulterated bullshit.

Bring your latest under-five-minutes (hint: time yourself!) composition of gorgeous to Modern Times Bookstore on MAY 22nd (hint: that’s next week!), clap for all the pretty people (hint: that’s everyone), and we might buy you a milkshake afterward (hint: no, really).

Queer Open Mic featuring Trashcanpoet
Friday, May 22, 2009
7pm SHARP for sign-ups, show at 7:30
Open mic allows 5 minutes max, one piece only.
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

So there we were, minding our own business, having a perfectly local February Queer Open Mic, when out of nowhere a wild-haired boy from DC adds himself to the last spot on the sign-up list and is so incredibly charming and talented that he steals the entire freaking show. You can just imagine: our feature was devastated. Our community, violated. And our talent bookings for April, resolved.

Please welcome back to the Bay Area… the man who gave us all chocolate and got more phone numbers at the end of the night than any of us locals can rake in at the Trans March, Dyke March, and Pride Parade combined…. REGIE CABICO!

About Regie
Regie Cabico is a pioneer of the spoken word movement having won the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and is the first openly queer and Asian American Poet to take top prizes in the National Poetry Slam. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Spoken Word Revolution & Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Television and film credits include 2 seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, PBS’ “In The Life” & Boys Life Volume 1 (Strand Releasing). He resides in Washington, DC where he is the artistic director of Sol & Soul, an arts and activist organization.

Bring a piece to perform that’s under 5 minutes (just one — and time yourself at home), put your butt on a seat next to someone cute, and get ready to grin.  See you there!

Queer Open Mic featuring Regie Cabico
Friday, April 24, 2009
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Hey hey hey! It’s time to play again!  And this time we have super special wonderful (and adorable) singer songwriter Daniel Owens lined up to rock the mic at halftime.

About Daniel

Daniel Owens was born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA where music was a constant theme throughout his childhood.  He spent much of his angst-driven adolescence playing music in various projects:  punk bands, alt-rock bands, and as a solo singer/songwriter.  He eventually moved to northern California where he simultaneously earned a BA in Music at Sonoma State University and confronted his gay identity, realizing that the people of Northern California were seemingly open and accepting of virtually any form of personal expression.

Daniel has performed extensively.  He has won songwriting competitions through the songwriting guild West Coast Songwriters.  In 2008, he released his first full-length album Stargazer (available at the show and on iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon.com) which received reviews from Indie-music.com.  He will be going back into the studio in early April to cut an EP of new material.  Goals include:  Making his music better and better and better and remaining honest…. and learning Spanish…. and learning how to effectively cook Indian food.

Get a sneak peak at his style by checking out his MySpace before the show.

See you there!

Queer Open Mic featuring Daniel Owens
Friday, March 27, 2009
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

So what if everybody and your mother are celebrating Valentine’s Day all weekend long with their stupid overpriced Russel Stover’s chocolates and their stupid cartoon cards with red hearts all over them and their stupid hand-holding and stupid kissing everywhere.  Whatever. We’re over it.

In fact, we’re SO over it that we’re creating a bunker to hide out in while we wait for the storm to pass. It’s called Queer, Bitter, and Single: an extra special love-sucks Queer Open Mic extravaganza next Friday, the 13th.  And we’re following it with a pub crawl in the Mission because after we throw all our juicy snarky brilliance at each other, we’re gonna need to go drink it off.

This open mic night will be all you.  No feature, extra spots on the sign-up list, and yes, you can go more than once if there’s time.

This is not — I repeat: NOT — a singles mixer. If you meet another queer bitter single at this event and fall in stinky-love at first sight over poetry and beer and then go home together and stay in bed all weekend having the best edgy sex you’ve ever had, you will have missed the point altogether.  And we will think of a suitable punishment for you.  And it will be hot.

Non-single empathetic allies are welcome, as long as they play by our rules.

Queer Open Mic: “Queer, Bitter, and Single”
Friday, February 13, 2009
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco
Followed by a pub crawl in the Mission

Okay, we swear we’re not making this up.  Baruch will indeed be performing! Live! At Queer Open Mic! January 23rd! For freaking reals! Of course, you really shouldn’t just take our word for it on this one — you’re just gonna have to show up and see the magic for yourselves.

About Baruch

Baruch Porras-Hernandez was born in Toluca, Mexico and moved to California with his family when he was 7 years old. He grew up in Albany in the East Bay and started writing poetry his freshman year of highschool. Later at Sonoma State University he began performing poetry at local open mics. He graduated with a Theater Arts Degree with a concentration in Acting in 2004 and moved to the Bay Area to work in Theater. He has been the Program Associate for the Young California Writers Project at the Magic Theater in San Francisco for the past five years and has worked as an Actor with several theater companies in the bay area including Berkeley Rep, CalShakes, ShotGun Players, FoolsFURY, Aurora Theater Company and Word for Word. He is also an Artist and has shown his work in cafes throught the Bay Area. He performs regularly at The Berkeley Poetry Slam and has been a huge fan of San Francisco Queer Open Mic since he first walked by the 3DollarBill Cafe, saw the folks through the window and decided to sign up.

(Psst! Inside scoop!  He’s also featuring the week before — Jan 14th — at the Berkeley Slam, so if you’re dying of excitement and NEED a sneak peek, that’s where you can find it.)

Bring your latest draft of raw, sexy, and under-five-minutes queer joy, and join Baruch and the rest of the beautiful people at Modern Times on the 23rd.

Queer Open Mic featuring Baruch
Friday, January 23, 2008
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

So you’ve just finished your turkey (or your tofurkey, or your anti-turkey-slaughter protest fast), and now all of a sudden a national recession-denial panic is hitting you in the face with obscene retail sales, even more obscenely low gas prices, and people yelling “Ho ho ho!” at you from street corners like they know something about you that you don’t. You’re confused, you’re not quite sure if you want to celebrate or counter-celebrate, and you’re thinking maybe it would just be safer if you ditched everything for the next month and hid under a rock.

We have a better idea. Come to Queer Open Mic instead! It’s right in the middle of the month — just after you finish digesting all that tryptophan, and slightly before you have to meet Aunt Sue for the annual Cheek-Pinching Extravaganza.

And by the way… that whole cold weather thing? Seriously not a problem. Cuz our feature this month is HOT.

About Aimee Suzara…

Filipino-American writer/performer and educator Aimee Suzara uses poetry, theatre and movement to explore themes of home, migration and the body. She was a member of the queer Pin@y arts collective, Kreatibo, whose 2004 play, Dalagas and Tomboys: A Family Affair was awarded a Best Theatre award from Curve Magazine.  Her multidisciplinary production, Pagbabalik (Return), was awarded the Zellerbach Community Arts Grant in 2006 and 2007 and she has been published in the NAACP-nominated Check the Rhyme: an Anthology of Female Poets and Emcees(Lit Noire, 2007) and in several journals.  Her poetry chapbook, the space between, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. She coaches youth and adults in poetry and performance and teaches English at City College of San Francisco and Laney College.  Check her out at www.aimeesuzara.net.

So come on down to Modern Times and bring a draft.  We’ll warm those cockles right up for ya.

Queer Open Mic
Friday, December 12, 2008
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Due to unforeseen and inarguably significant events, Baruch’s not gonna be able to feature this Friday.  But we’ll have him back at the microphone really soon.

And we’ve decided to bring you something EXTRA SUPER DUPER SPECIAL this Friday, to make up for it.  All of Queer Open Mic’s hosts, past and present, are coming together to fill your brains with brilliant writing all at once!

Witness the Great Emchy as she dazzles you with nonconsensual heart palpitations and gut-wrenching funhouse mirrors of truth!

Hang onto your hats as the Dark and Mysterious Sherilyn Connelly tosses you about with twisted plots in deviant dimensions!

Try not to blink as the Wicked Sarah Doppmonster contorts tense tales into restraining devices that reach out and grab your feet!

And cackle along as Mollena the Vehement juggles rants and impressions with the skill of a tiger attacking its prey!

Yes, that’s right!  This Friday, we’re bringing it all together!  A new place, a new time, and all the things you’ve ever loved about QOM but were afraid to write about.

Bring a sharp pen.

Queer Open Mic
Friday, November 14, 2008
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Hey Queercats!  Did you miss us?  Have you been pining for a good dose of counterculture brilliance and beauty for the last month and a half?  Are you longing with deep gutteral moans at night for that ripe dose of good old fashioned sexydeviant spoken word, like mom used to write?

Well put on your combat boots and glitter bracelets, cuz Queer Open Mic is THIS FRIDAY!!!

(I know, I can hardly believe it myself. But it’s true!)

Here’s the skinny:

• The feature is Baruch. Baruch is amazing.  Seriously.
• The venue has changed. We’re now at Modern Times Bookstore.  That’s 888 Valencia St (at 20th) in SF.
• The time changed, too. Sign-ups are at 7pm with the show at 7:30.  GET THERE EARLY if you wanna read.  We’re expecting a packed house.
• Please bring a $3-5 donation (or don’t, if you’re broke.  We understand.)

Okay?  See you soon?  OMG, so soon.  (YAY!)