Cultural Art Expression- Open Mic

I host an open mic here in NJ and am excited about our first official public performance, Performance & Art. I am displaying some of my art work with another artist and friend Gen. Acoustic music and poetry will be presented during the night as we enjoy the environment of a relaxed coffee house setting. I can smell the beans roasting right now!

Hopefully this venue has caught on; its free and fun for the whole family. I first got involved in open mic during the early 90's in Dallas, an area known as Deep Ellum. There was a bar listed in that district, Chumley's, and a friend asked me if I wanted to go check it out. She had no idea I was even a writer. I had not written in quite a while. I had a chronically ill daughter who need a lot of attention and did not go out much, or have the mental capacity to concentrate on my art forms. Once I got up on that stage and watch the more seasoned Spoken Word Poets, I was hooked!

If anyone out there writes and feels shy about it, give it a try, and keep going until you start belting it out in your sleep. I find writing a drug of unimaginable proportion. Give me the largest dose, and let me have the microphone...

Spoken Word is Self Expression

When we stand in front of someone and express our feelings about what a shitty day we had, or the great vacation we just took, or even about the great meal we cooked just for ourselves...that is Spoken Word. Just write it down, and it turns into prose, break it down, and it turns into poetry or free verse. I believe that if something is own our mind and we write it down, it becomes the thought on that piece of paper; it is still ours, but we have separated ourselves from it. Especially if it is a negative thing that becomes part of our magnetic aura and then we draw in more negative vibes that screw our whole day or life up.

I wrote this piece after a few months of opening my own cafe inside a woman's health food store. I had a hard time fitting my style into her space, and this is what came out. After I wrote it, I loved coming to work and the humor of it helped me see clear of her situation-

Kitchen Rant

Morning drain
Smells like sewage and shit
Scented candles burn surreal relief
Enters the store police
Pantry shelves filled with clutter
She moves through door, the store, my mind
Preemptive remarks sounding like mutter.

(sing with rhythm ) move the pans to the top
From underneath the pots
Bare cabinets now leave
Wasted space to heave
Sweep up with the mop
Sling food around the juicer
Its m u s i c and n o i s e
Carrot, beet, celery, and apple hip hop

Front door opens, smiling faces
At any cost all ready to share
Buying food products to repair
Some check out today’s menu…
maple salmon, BBQ beef, fake meats
Caribbean grits, 3 kinds of soup
Salads of all kinds….
Carrot apple raisin, apple slaw
Crunchy raw brownies to finish it all

Lets regroup… purely all healthy cuisine

Here nor there… so what’s a little disorder
As long as we roll and bounce
Through the days short mortars

Sweeping around the change
Our work feeds the soul
Merits of this and that
With little technique, just more cooperative ingredients
But Monmouth of grief if not obedient
Covering and disguising what’s really going on…

high rent and bad location, location, location
Too many chairs and not enough tables
Damn to no oven and no menu fabrications


What’s good is the food, company present and regular creations
Counter space seating and talk of the nation
To the end of the day, dishes piled high
Food splattered aprons, needy floors and counters
To letting sleeping dogs lie.

- E, 2008 © All work displayed on here is the property of Elizabeth Stelling, CookAppeal, LLC