By Brian Dunlap

April Fools 2021, a new open mic debuted in L.Á. on Zoom. Future Now: A Los Angeles Black & Brown Reading & Open Mic, is hosted by the journal Dryland and its two famous faces, Viva Padilla and Nikolai Garcia.

A packed house of 39 logged on to hear features Eva Recinos, Aruni Wijesinghe and Alexandria Martinez. Writers of color, the features had previously published in the last, 10^th, issue of Dryland.

Again, community was close, yet so far. The millionth time L.Á.’s literary community met behind a computer screen. In a year. But it worked as well as it always had. Eva Recinos provided a powerful essay about the contested streets of South Central she’s always called home.

During the open mic, Jean Pierre Rueda read a poem in Spanish. Hector, Son of Hector, a native of Long Beach, read poems about Chicanx L.Á. A few other poets read poems about their L.Á. neighborhoods. Also, a lot of the attendees hailed from NorCal, most from the Chicanx communities of the Bay.

Even the host of Speaking Axolotl: A Chicanx/Latinx Literary Series y Open Mic in the East Bay, Josiahluis Alderete, read, his gato sitting quietly on his lap.

It was great to see several familiar faces of the L.Á. literary community—Matt Sedillo, Nikolai Garcia, Viva Padilla, Lisbeth Coimen—after too long of an absence. For brief moments I felt like I was back attending open mics on the Eastside, Highland Park, writers of color centered open mics open to all. Dryland will be back for episode two next month, on the first Thursday in May.