Open Mic archive

From 2010-2012, Open Mics happened every Friday here on the blog, in one of two formats: guest posts and You Talk. In guest posts, I introduced a guest artist and some samples of her or his work. In You Talk, I posed a question (usually art-related), and everyone was invited to discuss. During its duration, the Open Mic was a vital part of this blog’s community and my own creative community. Though the mic is closed for now, new readers remain welcomed always with open arms and hearts.

The following archive is organized thematically. To simply read through all the Open Mics from newest to oldest, go here.

The Open Mic Archive

Guest posts

Writing: Fiction and flash fiction
2012 September: Nayomi Munaweera, Excerpt from Island of a Thousand Mirrors
2011 September: Ré Harris, “The Last of Orange”
2011 April: Ja’Nese Dixon, “Fearless Goodbye”
2011 March: Helena Osorio-Zavala, “Anatomy of a (Failed) Marriage” [post removed 7/2015, by Helena’s request]
2011 January: Ré Harris, “West on 80, 1993”
2010 September: Bernadette Davis, “Powerful Play”
2010 September: Lisa Hsia, Excerpt from “Saraya’s story”
2010 August: Bernadette Davis, 500 word short

Writing: Poetry
2011 January: Susana de Jesus Huerta, “Our Children Are Not Anchors” and “La Despedida”
2010 December: Clare Ramsaran, “Searching for Eden” and “Aftershocks”
2010 November: Ré Harris, “Sparks”

Writing: Creative nonfiction, personal essay, and journal
2012 April: Cathy John (with Freddie Yauner and Paul Robson), Look Into My Eyes
2011 October: Lisa Hsia, “No Answer But This”
2011 October: Anna Fonté, “Playing (with Cindy Sherman)”
2011 September: Jenn Zahrt, “The Night Before”
2011 April: Juanita Mantz, “Kegger”
2011 April: Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe, “Reflections from an Artist Who Is Doing It All”
2010 November: Willona Sloan, “I Am Grateful”
2010 September: Willona Sloan, “Don’t Be Such a Whiny Baby”
2010 September: Lisa Hsia, Travel Journals 1996-99
2010 August: Lisa Fisher, “The Truth About My Childhood…”
2010 August: Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe, “All Because of a Name”
2010 August: Lisa Hsia, inaugural Open Mic

Writing: Memoir
2011 April: Fredrick Cloyd, Excerpt from Dream of the Water Children, dream of the water children

Writing: Young adult and children’s
2010 October: HQ Chung, “Musings: Mnemosyne’s Curse”

Writing: Humor
2011 May: JA Adams, “Woes of the Writer Parent”
2010 October: Tina, “An Emerging Feminist’s Adventures in Online Dating”

Writing: Roundup (multiple writers from a single event)
2011 November: San Francisco Litcrawl 2011

Visual art: Drawing and painting
2011 May: Alison Higuera, “Thoughts on Harnessing the Creative Impulse — and Keeping It!” [post removed 6/2015, by Alison’s request]
2010 October: Niki Escobar, “Tall Monster”
2010 October: Alison Higuera, “Matters of the Heart”

Visual art: Photography
2011 September: Clare Mulvany, “The Poetics of Photographic Possibility”
2011 September: Ariane Hunter, “My Eyes of the World”
2011 September: Kim Manley Ort, “What Is Contemplative Photography?”
2011 July: Naveed Ahmad, “Notes on Prague”
2011 April: anna Saini, Photos of India
2010 December: Ann Borja, “Pilipina Warrior”

Visual art: Graphic novels and comics
2011 February: Chad Sell, Excerpts from Shadow Play
2010 October: Lisa Hsia, On writing for comics, and excerpt from “The First I Ever Heard of It”

Visual art: Roundup (multiple artists)
2011 November: Motion Poem and time-lapse space video
2011 June: Old Town Art Fair, Chicago
2011 January: The Sketchbook Project

Performance: Theater
2011 October: Seth Bogner, “Creating The Love Project” [post removed 5/2014, by Seth’s request]

Video
2011 February: Lisa Hsia, “Our house”

You Talk

2012 April: Word association – Cities
2012 March: Clothes – Amazement – Ceding power – Homely things
2012 February: Attraction – Everyday beauty – Creative disruptions
2012 January: Favorite visual art – Asking and receiving – Highlight, lowlight – A life well lived