1. It was a rainy night, five days before Christmas, so I wasn’t expecting much of a turnout for the third Saturday Spoken Word night at the Café Del Sol. But when I arrived, I flung open the door and there was Darth Vader, Mrs. Claus, and a birthday party with cake being passed around [...]
We were short on chairs and long on readers at November’s Spoken Word Open Mic. A record-breaking twenty readers performed to an overflowing enthusiastic crowd. Rose and the crew at the Blackwater Loft did a great job accommodating the last minute change in venue (due to a concert in the hall adjacent to the Café [...]
A couple plays a game of Shogi, a man works at his laptop, a tourist stretches out on the Café Del Sol comfy couch reading a book to the sound of barista Melissa grinding coffee beans for lattes. Young, soon-to-be thirteen years old Mars, a frequent spoken word open mic participant, offers to be the [...]
We could see the sun set from the Café Del Sol comfy couch at September’s Spoken Word. It filled the café with a golden glow and shone on early readers at the open mic. A few of us were slightly overdressed in fancier than normal clothing, having come from our friend Jeri’s wedding earlier in [...]
Mara’s introduction for Hollins University writing teacher Thorpe Moeckel at the Café Del Sol was so well crafted and delivered that Thorpe thought maybe he shouldn’t read any poetry, after all. Her words were a hard act to follow. But follow them he did, taking us listeners on a ride through Alaska, Maine, and North [...]
The monthly Café Del Sol Spoken Word schedule got changed and the announcement never made it into the Floyd Press. Even so, on the merit of The Museletter (our community newsletter), word-of-mouth, and one flyer hanging on the café door, June’s event on Saturday night ended up being well attended. But a certain someone who [...]
Contrary to Tom Ryan’s Floyd Enquirer report of a full contact mud wrestling poetry slam for the title of High Priestess of Poetry, there was no mud, or even mud pies, at May’s Spoken Word night at the Café Del Sol. There wasn’t even any chocolate cake, which might have been expected considering that it [...]
This story was published in The Floyd Press on May 1, 2008. It was also featured on the newspaper’s website HERE. “This is getting to be a real good smelling poetry reading,” said visiting poet Jim Webb in reference to the scent of popcorn coming from the front of the Floyd Country Store. Webb and [...]
The 7-9 time-slot stretched on to 10:30, with several new readers, a full house of attendees, and a line-up that resembled a Spoken Word variety show. After Greg opened the evening with a reflective essay about photographs and memories, Mara (pictured left) and I shared our very different Scrabble poems, created using words we played [...]
There was lime green, kelly green, olive, and teal represented at the third Saturday Spoken Word Night, two days before St. Patrick’s Day. Even the sign-up sheet that our master of ceremonies, Alli, held as she announced the readers was green. Alli – standing in for Café Del Sol owner Sally, who we were told [...]
Extra chairs were carried in from the Winter Sun hall to accommodate the overflow crowd for February’s Spoken Word at the Café Del Sol. I told my poet friend Mara that interest may have been piqued by the photo announcement in the recent Floyd Press of our mutual friend, Janean, reading at last month’s event. [...]
~ Third Saturday Spoken Word at the Café Del Sol 7-9 I wore my purple poet’s beret. Mara’s was black. Everyone else was hatless, even though the night was frigid, and a few flurries earlier in the day threatened to cancel our open mic. I’m so gullible. I tend to believe everything the poets say. [...]
“Did you find one you like?” I asked Phil, father of our youngest spoken word reader, Mars. “No, I’m just reading the funny papers,” he answered as he held up one with a fish on it that said ‘don’t give me that carp.’ Chelsea, a retired Radford University Professor who has recently authored a chapbook [...]
My life is structured around seasons and holidays in the same way I imagine an elementary school teacher’s might be. Every month I look for seasonal graphics and clip art to adorn the Museletter, the local newsletter I put together with others. Page colors are chosen with the seasons in mind. Orange and pumpkins for [...]
In the end I’m like Rosa Parks … I don’t want to get up and go where I’m told … I work just as hard as any other poet … and I write from where I sit … Colleen Mara and I performed our dueling punctuation poems as promised at this month’s Spoken Word open [...]
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. [...]
The following was published in the Floyd Press on August 9, 2007. Local poets stepped up their presence at FloydFest this year by way of a stage in the Global Village. We moved from our soapbox stand under the Poetree at the festival entrance because with continuous bands playing on two near-by stages, we could [...]
The moon in June will bloom blue and times two, but the poets will be out when it’s NEW … So began the Floyd Press ad and the Museletter announcement for The Floyd Writers Circle’s June Spoken Word Open Mic. My fellow circle member and poet, Mara Robbins clipped the line for the poster she [...]
