Empowering the juggernaut

I was approached today about becoming the permanent host of record for the open microphone events at the local Barnes & Noble. I have a meeting set with them next week to discuss this notion. I am not adverse to it, I just want to see what my authorities versus my responsibilities will be.

I do not think all open mic poetry events are bad. I have heard some talented authors and some good poems presented. I have just seen far too many be little, inbred performance art venues where shrillness of voice and histrionics take the place of real poetry. And I'm all about the legitimacy of the artform.

I want to put together a strategy for making it a major event and bringing in as much talent as possible, also empowering the juggernaut...giving poets, and their poetry, a means to evolve and transcend their current states, perhaps assisting poets in finding additional performance and publication venues.

Sell a man a fish and he gets e. coli. Teach a man to fish and he is arrested for violation of state game laws.

That's an important distinction.