On September 1st, Da Poetry Lounge (DPL) announced on its Instagram page that they were moving. After 25 years at the Greenway Court Theatre in the Fairfax District, the nation’s largest weekly open mic, the anchor of L.Á.’s spoken work community, is moving to Leimert Park. Da Poetry Lounge said:
DPL is proud to announce our relocation to Leimert Park, where we will soon open up our own dedicated space. This exciting milestone represents a new chapter in our evolution and reaffirms our unwavering commitment to serving the community after 27 years of service.
In the interim, we will host the rest of our open mic 2025 season [at] Ora Café in addition to program collaborations with aligned venues around the Los [Á]ngeles County area for offsite programming [and] workshops!
We are excited to continue serving and growing with the people we have been privileged to support for nearly three decades.
Founded in 1998 as “Dante’s Poetry Lounge” by poets Dante Basco, Ron “Shihan” VanClief, Devan “Poetri” Smith and “Brutha” Gimmel Hooper, Da Poetry Lounge was originally hosted in Basco’s living room for three years before moving to The Greenway Court Theatre.
Since those early days, DPL has formed a slam poetry team that performs in national poetry competitions and hosts its own monthly slam every third Tuesday of the month. The slam team has always drawn its members from standout performers at their open mic. Noted for their social justice-centered work, it was under the co-tutelage of poet, speaker and teaching artist, Alyesha Wise, that the team reached the final stage at the 2017 and 2018 national poetry slams. Over the years, as Da Poetry Lounge has grown from a grassroots gathering of poets, it’s turned into a fully structured non-profit organization, staffed with local spoken word poets, to ensure its continued sustainability. And with this move to their new location in Leimert Park, the heart of L.Á.’s historic Black arts and culture community, DPL will have the complete flexibility to evolve and deepen their mission, connection and programming to keep pace with the needs of their spoken word community.
On Instagram, the Greenway Court Theatre and its arts alliance posted their own thank you and celebration of the 25 years Da Poetry Lounge spent creating spoken word poetry community there.
For 25 years, Greenways Arts Allience and [Da] Poetry Lounge have worked side by side, building a home where voices could rise, stories ould be shared, and commuity could flurish. What beagin as a weekly gthering grew into the nation’s largest and longest-running open mic poetry venue, shaping countless lives and inspiring a generation of artists. Together, we have nurtured a stage that has always been more than a stage[;] it has been a heartbeat, a sanctuary, and a movement.
As [Da] Poetry Lounge embarks on its new chapter in Leimert Park, our hearts are filled with both gratitude and pride. Gratitude for every Tuesday night that filled the Greenway Court THeatre with fire, honesty, and truth telling. Gratitude for the poets who bared their souls, the audiences who leaned in and listened and the frendships that were born under our roof. And ppride in witnessing [Da] Poetry Lounge carry this legacy forward into a community that has long been a wellspring of Black cretivity, resistance, and culture.
This transition is not a goodbye, but a celebration of all that has been created and all that is yet to come. Greenway Arts Alliance will always hold [Da] Poetry Lounge as part of our story, and we look forward to watching the next era unfold with the same boldness and brilliance that has defined the past 25 years.
To the poets, producers, organizers, and audiences who made this partnership so transformative[,] thank you. You have shown us the power of words, the power of truth, and the power of community.
With love, respect, and excitement for what’s ahead.
Los Angeles Literature 