The Mad Poets Blog

MCs. Hosts. Workshop leaders.  Call us what you will, we are the kindly folks who show up every month to make sure you have a spot to hear and share poetry.  We coordinate readers and venues. We charm fickle audiences. We stroke delicate poetic egos.  And we finesse the unexpected:  an entire audience of elementary school students, no audience at all, belligerent readers who refuse to sit down, and all the contradictory post-reading complaints and criticisms (you should have given a bathroom break, you shouldn’t have given a bathroom break, you should give more time in the open mic, you gave too much time in the open mic, etc. etc. etc.).  For all that, we don’t ask for much… except that maybe you use your best penmanship on the open mic sign up sheet, at least *try* to stick to the time limit, and for pete’s sake don’t talk while somebody’s reading — that’s just plain rude.

On August 13th, several Mad Poets hosts will ask for just a teensy bit more attention as we trade in our hosting mics for our reading mics. So far, six hosts/workshop leaders have signed on to share the spotlight as featured readers at the Milkboy Acoustic Cafe in Bryn Mawr.

We’ve got:

• Richard Moyer, host of the Gryphon Cafe Open Mic
• Arlene Bernstein, host of the Seasonal Madness at Media Borough Hall
• Amy E. Laub, leader of the Mad Poets Critique Circle
• Glenn McLaughlin, host of Otherwise – Poetry at Churchill’s
• Mary Kathryn Morgeneier, host of the Steel City Coffee House Series
• Autumn Konopka (yours truly), host of Milkboy Acoustic Cafe Series
• Tamara Oakman, leader of the Penn Bookstore Workshop

In the next few weeks leading up to this awesome reading, I will profile these hosts right here on this very blog (UPDATE:  DONE… click those nifty links & you’ll get to the profiles).  You will get to know all sorts of interesting things about them:  their backgrounds, their inspirations, their deepest dreams and desires (okay, that may be going a little far).  So, check back for updates, profiles, and previews of this and other upcoming MPS readings.

Finally, as the host for this special night of table-turning poetry, I can promise at least a few surprises to will keep the readers honest and the audience on its toes.  And, of course, for those who (like most of us) are in it to practice your own poems, we will close out the evening with an open mic as we always do.