OPEN MIC at Planet Earth Poetry
Our Friday Night Open Mic is the longest running open mic in Victoria—consistently making space for local poetry since 1995. (And at 30 years, we’re one of the oldest poetry open mics in Canada!)
OUR AUDIENCE is an audience of experts. On any given night there could be a dozen or more established or esteemed poets in our audience—people who could edit a literary collection, not just write one! Featured poets from out of town consistently comment on the caliber of our open mic, and the attentiveness and expertise of our regular audiences. It’s a genuine pleasure to read work at our mic—imagine, an audience hanging on your every word and truly wanting to support your work!
LOCATION: RUSSELL BOOKS: 747 Fort St #100, Victoria, BC V8W 3E9
Wheelchair accessible, washrooms open during the reading ONLY.
WHEN: We offer our weekly community open mic EVERY FRIDAY during the season (the season runs from Sept-June, with a break in December). Please note: sometimes we have a special event and no open mic, or we host a themed open mic. Sometimes we offer an entire evening of open mic—please sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media to stay in the loop!
We also offer a MONTHLY community open mic at NEW HORIZONS in James Bay during the regular season.
WHAT CAN YOU READ: It is our joy to welcome ALL VOICES and ALL STYLES OF POETRY to our community--we love hearing you read! You’re welcome to read your own original poem, or a poem from any other poet. BUT…this is a POETRY ONLY mic. If a poem contains a few lines of song lyric, that’s totally fine, but it needs to be a POEM, NOT A SONG. There are plenty of singer-songwriter open mics around town.
PLEASE READ OUR OPEN MIC ETIQUETTE:
We warmly invite our open mic participants to follow these THREE EASY RULES when participating in our POETRY ONLY open mic:
1. All poets get to read ONE POEM ONLY (even if it’s really short). If you’re reading a Haiku or a 2-3 line poem, you’re welcome to read it twice. Do let the audience know that you have a three-line poem and will read it twice.
2. Your time at the mic MUST NOT EXCEED 3 minutes
Please note: THREE MINUTES INCLUDES YOUR COMMENTARY, so if you talk about your poem for a minute and a half, you may not have time to read your actual poem. We suggest poets time their poems and plan what they’ll say about the poem (and time their commentary too). The host may switch off the mic at 3 minutes.
3. No hate speech: no misogyny, homophobia, racism, etc. Not ever.
UNSPOKEN ETIQUETTE & AGREEMENT: If you sign up for the open mic you are agreeing to stay for the whole reading—including BOTH featured readers. If we notice people slip out after the mic and leave, we tend to make a note of that—this is a community and we all stay to support all readers at the event.
SPECIAL NOTE ON HOSTING: Hosting the open mic is not an easy gig—please be gentle with our hosts. Please redirect any frustration about not getting on the mic. Our hosts are all skilled volunteers (and poets themselves), and while they do their best to make room for as many poets as possible, there’s not always room for everyone—thank you kindly for understanding.
SIGN UP: The host begins sign-up at 7pm or slightly later—after the doors open. Please visit the host at the podium and they’ll take your name. Please let them know if you’re from out of town or if you’ve not read in a while—or if you’ve NEVER read!
WHAT TO EXPECT: Open mic begins at 7:30pm, followed by two excellent Featured Poets reading from recently released poetry collections (please stay for the whole evening—we notice if people leave after they read at the mic). The host will call your name when it’s your turn—please have your poem ready (and reading glasses too). If you’re reading off your phone, please have the poem open and ready to go (scrolling and file opening eats into your three minutes).
EQUITY: It’s a mostly first-come-first serve operation, but we aim to give preference to voices we've not heard before, or that we've not heard in a while, or to those coming from long distances, or only in town for a week. You're always welcome to ask for a spot, and we're always happy to see you, even if we can’t offer you a spot. We try to fit everyone in, and we aim to be as equitable as possible, but we usually have to say no to a few people simply due to space. Our livestream opens at around 8pm to welcome the Featured Poets, and for this reason open mic space is limited.
We have a mutual respect policy, and everyone is welcome to read it. We're really big on mutual respect and community building (as evidenced by three decades of service to poets and poetry!) If you ever feel unsafe at any of our events, please let the host know immediately.
We can't wait to hear what you've been working on! Thank you for bringing your poetry to our open mic.
MONTHLY AFTERNOON COMMUNITY OPEN MIC
We host an open mic before our monthly Friday afternoon in-person readings too!
Sign up begins at 1:30pm (and it’s usually pretty easy to get on the list for this one every time!)
Open mic begins at 2:00pm, followed by one of our out-of-town featured poets, reading from a recently released poetry collection. If you sign up for the open mic you are agreeing to stay for the whole reading.
NEW HORIZONS: 234 Menzies Street, Victoria BC
DATES for this reading vary month to month.
Please sign up for our weekly newsletter to learn more (the newsletter is less regular from June through August)