By Mike Sonksen
FROM: Interlitq

“It was kind of a snowball effect. My first venue was the Woman’s Building downtown on Spring St. where I met Wanda Coleman and Michelle Clinton, both from Watts, like my mom. Wanda was the first to publish my work in an anthology called Women for All Seasons,” declares Pam Ward.

Native Los Angeles poet Pam Ward is talking about what happens when you start attending poetry venues across the city. Ward came up in the 1980s Los Angeles Poetry scene. Her experiences with the welcoming poetry community echo legions of poets across America that find the landscape of bookstores, coffee houses, libraries, theaters and galleries that host poetry as the inclusive community they were always looking for.

“Venues were more than readings, they were living, breathing experiences,” declares Ward. I joined the poetry community after Ward in the 1990s and I echo her wholeheartedly.

“I loved open mics and always met people who gave me flyers saying they were hosting something and asked if I wanted to read,” Ward recalls. “Sometimes I’d run from the Iguana Cafe in Noho and then read at the Roxy then Ya Yas Teahouse.” Ward knows LA and she “loved tooling through town and going all over, from Self Help Graphics on the east to Midnight Special Bookstore at the shore.”

Ward captures the dynamic zeitgeist of the poetry community. And if you want to get sociological with it, poetry open mics can generate what Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence,” or in other words, a communal shared experience. I know of no better platform than an open mic to build community and empower writers. Read Rest of Article Here