Open Mic at the NightSky Cafe

The NightSky Cafe is a cosy place on Union St. in Schenectady, with an open mic for poets on the third Wednesday of every month; the host is the always deeply whimsical Shaun Baxter.

The features on January 17 were Margot Lynch & R.M. Engelhardt. Margot has only be out on the open mic scene a short time, but seems to have been writing for a while (she read a poem written in 1995). She even played the piano. Rob performed with "Beneath the Mire", keyboard & guitar. The music slowed down his presentation & sometimes obliterated his words -- not always a bad thing, one other poet said. Rob had a new sheaf of poems for sale, "Night", a number containing his signature ellipsis in the next to last line.

Carri read a sexy poem, just as her husband arrived, about why summer is better than winter (because you have less clothes to take off). My two poems were Squeaky Fromme (see this blog) & Henry Rollins, for katherine. Tim Verhagen reprised his poems from Caffe Lena, but good to hear again. Then a last-second sign up, R.T. read from a napkin, perhaps a punk response to romantic posing over a rose?

Next open mic there is actually after the third Thursday of February.