On 2nd Thursdays monthly The Oakland Poetry Slam & WIDE-Open-Mic visits Downtown's best little venue - Awaken Cafe. We're thrilled to bring you, our everloving audience to the great space with the extra tasty vittles and thirst quenching drinks (Sandwiches, Salads, Beer, Wine, Yay!). In December we're thrilled to feature SLC's fabulous Gray Brian Thomas. Remember - the show STARTS at 8 - get there early if you want to sign up and/or get a good seat.

These days we start the show with the Poetry Slam. There you'll see up to 8 poets compete with their own, original work to wow the judges and audience alike. We'll have two rounds of Slam with the top three finishers winning $50 in cash money.

Our featured poet for the evening is Salt Lake City's super dope Gray Brian Thomas. Gray is a Salt Lake City native. He is a 3-time member of Salt City Slam, co-founder of the Wasatch Wordsmiths, co-founder/coach/teammate of the University of Utah Poetry Slam team, and 2012 iWPS representative for SLC. He has been published in various journals, most recently by Tired Hearts Press. He has a degree in English from the University of Utah, though he considers it more of an expensive book club. Most recently, he quit smoking cigarettes in favor of classier pipes. His drinking habits have remained consistent for the past few years. He is best known for crumpling up paper into a ball and throwing it behind him. Sometimes this paper contains words, like a love note, or an apology (or both), the syntax of which he could never be quite satisfied. As he has grown older, he has fallen in love and apologized so many times that the living room and then the dining room of his apartment became completely covered with these balls of imperfection. He refused to carry them to the garbage, because he like to be reminded of failure, but at one point, when the ample amounts of paperballs were enough to not only completely cover the entire floor of his 500 sq. foot apartment, but reached a level of 5 feet or so throughout, he grew a fondness for jumping off of furniture and into the balls, swimming through them from one room to another. This activity reminds him of leaves in the autumn, which are, in a way, a tree’s attempt at apologizing, yet failing. Sometimes he writes love letters to the apology letters, and sometimes he must write an apology to the love letters. Once the collection of paperballs reached the ceiling, Gray was forced to rent another apartment, which he keeps clean, yet still he maintains the original apartment, which he still returns to, and will keep returning to until he can discover the perfect way of saying “I love you, I’m sorry.” 

The second half of the show is our patented WIDE-Open-Mic (singers, comics, MCs, storytellers, etc. encouraged to sign up). This portion of the evening is hosted by Dre and you never know who's gonna drop in and hit the mic. It's always a great time and, if you're just getting started or have something new to bring to the mic, is the perfect place for you. The water's warm... come on in. Plus, if you sign up to perform you get a special discount at the door.

NOTE - This is our ONLY event this month (we're switching to a monthly schedule for the time being.)

The Oakland Poetry Slam & Open-Mic 
Thursday December 12th 2013, 8pm - 10pm
Awaken Cafe 
1429 Broadway (near 14th St) 
Downtown Oakland 
JUST $5 for MeetUp Members!