We believe in our own beauty, but sometimes we forget. And the only thing to do, when you’ve forgotten your own wonderfulosity, is to pack yourself up and roll on out to the Mission, to take part in the celebration of personality, personhood and queerness that is Queer Open Mic. Because we’re not just celebrating words or love or queerness. We’re celebrating ourselves, and each other, and we’re celebrating you.

So take hold of your heart, strap on your shoes, and come join us this month and share a bit about what it is that you believe. (Our feature this month believes in bagels; now who doesn’t agree with that?)

About Josh Healey

Josh Healey is a writer, educator, and community organizer who believes in laughter, liberation, and the power of a good bagel. He is the author of Hammertime: Poems and Possibilities (OMAI/First Wave Press). Born and raised in Washington, DC, Healey has performed, taught, and led political workshops at universities, high schools, and conferences across the country. Speaking truth to power while inciting riots of uncontrollable joy, Healey has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and Al-Jazeera. Healey currently lives in Oakland, CA and works with Youth Speaks to empower young artists and activists across the Bay Area and the country. Find out more about him at: http://joshhealey.org/.

Queer Open Mic featuring Genderfork!
Friday, August 27, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Summer’s a great time for falling in love, for reinventing oneself and changing the world, and all those things are sure to need an outlet. Aren’t you lucky we provide you with one, every month, just like clockwork?

But what if you’re shy, you say? Just too darn skittish to get up on stage and spill your poetical guts about all the crazy fabulous things that summer’s brought you this turn around the Sun? Well, take inspiration as always from our fantastic feature: this month, the fabulous Jen G will take the mic.

If she can do it, so can you!

Click here for full size image

About Jen G

Jen G is a hypothetical marina trench explorer, performance (and otherwise) poet, and experimental filmmaker. She represented San Jose at the 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam, and also coached the 2009 San Jose Slam Team. She sometimes tours the country as one-half of the performance poetry duo The Pincushion Orchestra, and won the 2009 Viscera Award as one-half of the film production duo No-Penis Productions. She enjoys bad whiskey, good footnotes, and inappropriate children’s books. She has never been in the Navy.

Queer Open Mic featuring Genderfork!
Friday, July 23, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

This is the month-of-months! As if San Francisco wasn’t a great place to be queer any time of the year, in June we straight up take over! From marches to the Frameline Festival to the National Queer Arts Festival, there are so many things to do there’s just NO REASON for you to be sitting on your computer.

Unless, of course, you just ducked in to find out who you’ll be seeing at June’s over-the-top, completely-fantastical Queer Open Mic. In which case, good choice! We salute you!

In the glorious summer evening of June 25th, some of the amazing folks of behind Genderfork, the web’s home for all things gender variant – including G-fork founder and one-and-only Queer Open Mic co-host Sarah Dopp – will take the stage to dazzle and amaze you!

And we brought ‘em in for you. Because we know that it can be hard to decide what you want to do, with all the amazing events going on in June. So we went ahead and made this one easy for you.

We’ll see you there.

click for full version

About Genderfork
Performing: Sarah Dopp, Tanner, Dana Morrigan, and Jamie Arr!, the pirate with the purple-paisley peg-leg!

Genderfork is a community expression project about non-traditional gender identities.  It was founded by Sarah Dopp, it’s run by a global staff of volunteers, and it gives voice to thousands of beautiful gender nonconforming people from all over the world.  This will be a special reading of intensely personal, punch-you-in-the-gut confessions, manifestos, and anonymous secrets from the project, representing a broad spectrum of experiences from across the gender smorgasbord.  You can visit the full project at http://genderfork.com.

Queer Open Mic featuring Genderfork!
Friday, June 25, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Spring she came, and she carried us out of winter and into warm days that just make you want to get out there and into the sunshine, show off some skin and enjoy the good things in life. Like food, drink, sex, love , and poetry! That makes May the perfect time to come and join in the fun at Queer Open Mic. Bring your fabulous selves and your fabulous smiles, and we’re sure to have a fabulous time!

And speaking of which, take a gander at our fabulous special guest!

Featuring Dominika Bednarska!

Dominika Bednarska has been featured at open mics in bookstores since she was about fourteen. Her writing has appeared in The Bellevue Literary Review, Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity, What I Want From You: An Anthology of East Bay Lesbian Poets, Niet Normaal: Difference On Display, and Cripping Femme. She is currently working on a solo show entitled My Body Love Story as part of the AIRspace residency program and the National Queer Arts Festival. It is also cosponsored by FabledASP. Using humor, monologues and dance, My Body Love Story chronicles one of the most important relationships that we have: the one with our own body. In her spare time, she teaches at Berkeley and works on her PhD.

Queer Open Mic featuring Dominika Bednarska
Friday, May 28, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

April’s a sneaky-tricky 5-friday month, and us being a fourth-friday event means the next open mic is actually THIS FRIDAY, April 23rd.  But that’s not even the most exciting news.  The most exciting news is that our feature is a BAND.  Like, with an electric guitar and drums.  And we’re putting ‘em in a bookstore.  This friday night.  Because we’re a wild bunch of queers who can.

Featuring: Camp Out - myspace.com/campoutmusic

A 2 piece female band out of San Francisco, Camp Out is an indie/folk/pop band who makes up for their short roster by multi-tasking with instruments, pedals, drum machines, loop stations, syths, etc. With the depth and emotion of Death Cab and the charm and likeability of Tegan and Sara, Camp Out has been wooing fans all over San Francisco, in addition to their large fanbase on myspace. After a great response from their garage-recorded demo-cd, they went to work on a full-length studio-quality independent release which came out March 15, 2010.

Camp Out has played such venues as El Rio, Hotel Utah, El Rincon, House of Shields, Retox Lounge and is set to go on a west coast tour in June of 2010.

Queer Open Mic featuring Camp Out
Friday, April 23, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

We’ve been having a killer stream of high-energy shows, so please do yourself a massive favor and COME PLAY!

Spring has sprung, though we’re guessing you couldn’t tell because you’ve been hiding in your house. Yeah, we know you’re in there. Hiding from the tax & census mafias, eating your girl scout cookies, afraid of the big yellow thing in the sky and the green stuff that’s sprouting. It’s okay. We understand. Spring is a crazy time, what with the whole world starting to turn colors other than gray. But we promise you, it’s safe to come out. Tuck that box o’ sinfully addictive goodness under your bed, and come out in the light where the earth is busy growing and us queers are suddenly feeling our cruising energy come back after a boring, libido-less winter. Come out, come out, to Queer Open Mic. We love you here. But not like that.

Sam Sax is our special guest for March! He went a little crazy when we asked for a bio – but we like crazy. So we’ll just let him speak for himself…

About Sam Sax

sam sax. sam(ul apologee sax, etc.        (pr0-nown of ur choo-zing)
queer tape-deck magician and orator scoundrel combines poetics,  music, hip-hop, story-telling, to make the world tilt it.s head inquisitively and inquire, ‘what the f.ck?’ . two months new to the bay, he comes here from a year long tour with …we are theUnreal (myspace.com/codeoctopus) a queer mult-racial poetics collective who traveled the nation [+ canada] turning colleges, alleyways, poetry-slams, roof-tops, homes, basements, bars, coffee-shops etc.
into chaos pageants; where the most repetitive post-show quote from a random audience member was somewhere along the lines of ‘i have never seen anything like that before’. before the tour he did some schooling focusing on performance studies, gender-sexuality studies and other faggotry… oh and i.ve got mad records.

Queer Open Mic featuring Sam Sax
Friday, March 26, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Well, bah on all of them, we say! Make this month the queerest you can. Dress yourself up as cupid, and hand out your email address to cute young things down in SoMa. Take your lover out dancing and recreate that magical first meeting – you know, the one where you were so nervous that you almost threw up on your shoes? Rail at the universe and believe in love, even if for just one night. And if you’re so motivated, bring your leftover angst, schadenfreude, and any other psychological fugue down to QOM so we can help you get it out. It’s cathartic, you know.

This month, we’re so thrilled to have Michael Montlack at the mic!

About Michael Montlack:

Michael Montlack is the editor of the essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009) and the author of three poetry chapbooks: Cover Charge (Winner of the 2007 Gertrude Prize); Girls, Girls, Girls (Pudding House, 2008); and The Slip (Poets Wear Prada, 2009). His work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Swink, New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, Court Green, Columbia Poetry Review, MiPOesias and other journals. Recently he was awarded residencies from Ucross (Wyoming), Soul Mountain Retreat (Connecticut), VCCA (Virginia) and Lambda Literary Retreat (California). He splits his time between New York City (where he teaches at Berkeley College) and San Francisco, and has just finished writing his first novel.

Queer Open Mic featuring Michael Montlack
Friday, February 26, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Dusty Rose

About Dusty Rose:

Dusty Rose is an ex-school teacher turned pixie. To salvage what remained after the soul-eating public school system, she abandoned career, home, and family to pursue poetics full time. With a BA in Literature from UC Berkeley, five years of teaching experience and a pile of tattered journals, Dusty Rose dove into the slam world full time last year. Since then she has
competed regularly at bay area slams, qualified for team semi-finals in Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco and just completed a 9 month tour of the US and Canada with highlights in Vancouver, Chicago’s Green Mill, University of Maryland, Orlando’s Broken Speech, and Humboldt State University. Dusty Rose released two albums in 2008 with fellow poet and vagabond, Baraka Noel, as mumbles and the Dust. Her work drips with candied images for your mind; close your eyes… she will make love to you and that is a metaphor.

Queer Open Mic featuring Dusty Rose
Friday, January 22, 2010
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

I know what you’re saying – you’re saying “Wait! That’s not the fourth Friday of the month!” And you’re right – the date had to change because evidently some fat guy in a red suit has some houses to visit the next week and will be tying up the transit system for days. Look at it as your chance to get your last dose of Queer Open Mic goodness early, before 2009 becomes history!

About Philip Huang:

Model-turned-actress Philip Huang is the spokeswoman for the Thyroid Hope Foundation and the Vaginal Diabetes Survivors’ Group. Check out his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/spider75berkeley and add yourself of Philip’s Video Club on Facebook.

Confused yet?  We are.  But that’s the bio he gave us.  In all seriousness, Philip is a brilliant experimental performance artist, and he’s always engaging and fascinating to witness.  He’s also our holiday gift to you.

Queer Open Mic featuring Philip Huang
Friday, December 18, 2009
7pm sign-ups, show at 7:30
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street (at 20th) in San Francisco

Actually, there’s a much cooler holiday coming up besides the one the Evangelists stole from the Pagans, and that’s the one where we celebrate self-righteous colonists stealing an entire continent from a bunch of smart, friendly tribes who were here first. But it makes sense, you know, because we had knickers, and they didn’t, so that made us better. And thus, we gather once a year with canned corn and frozen turkey to give thanks for our knickers and the superiority they endow upon us.

Okay, seriously folks. Thanksgiving is soon and Queer Open Mic is the DAY AFTER IT this year. Yes, that’s right! We are proudly gathering together to read our hot queer sexysex poetry at the microphone on the biggest shopping day of the year (at a bookstore, no less, so we can’t even claim to be anti-capitalist here.. but it’s a co-op, so that makes it okay) and YOU’RE COMING. Because you’re our family. And we’re thankful for you and your knickers.

Extra special treat? Mr. ForWord the hot gay slam poet who regularly rocks the Berkeley Slam will be gracing us with his hip-hop brilliance. Grab a good seat!

About ForWord

After being in the slam scene for 3 years, ForWord is still proving he has something to say. Born in the bay area and raised in Sacramento, he has been winning slams all over Northern California. A member of the 2008 Sacramento Slam Team and also a freestyle hip-hop lyricists, ForWord is not only breaking stereotypes with his controversial content, but is also gaining respect in communities that historically have not been supportive of artists of his nature. Early 2008 he was the first openly gay battle MC to win the grand prize at the popular Oakland venue “Tourrettes Without Regrets” and has won numerous battles throughout the valley and bay area. He has gone head to head with some of the nation’s top poets and was a fierce competitor in Modesto’s much acclaimed invitational “ILL LIST 5″. 2009 he was featured on 103.5 kbmb as one of “Sac’s Finest” and is in the process of recording his first album which is scheduled to be released later this year. You can find him on MySpace

Bring your leftovers.

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

Please adjust your calendars now: Next month’s Queer Open Mic will be on the THIRD friday, December 18th, so as not to cramp Santa’s style.