Kitchen Sessions are merely:
–an excuse to get my friends to perform in my house
–an excuse not to have to cook
–a good reason to have a few beers
–a fantastic opportunity to talk with awesome people
–a ploy to let myself host a show every month
KITCHEN SESSION #10
Last night was incredible. I know I should post more after-show recaps from the kitchen, but last night’s festivities were one of my favorite sessions to date. Kitchen Session #10 made me feel so good to have poets in my house. Khary Jackson (a.k.a. 6 is 9) is one of my favorite performance poets out of the whole scene. I really love his work and his theatrical skill. Laura Yes Yes happened to travel up from NYC with him, so I gave her a mini-feature as well. They both killed it. One thing I love about the crowd that comes through is that most of them are poets who just simply love listening to good, solid work. I can’t think of very many intimate readings such as these; those rare evenings when only very good, new work makes it into the minds of every single person in earshot. Where awesome snacks abound, beer and wine flow, and conversation is law. In a tipsy state, I ended the night by naming various boobs. It was weird and hilarious and fun.
BUILD YOUR OWN KITCHEN SESSION
I cannot recommend the notion of hosting your own event in your own home enough. Call it what you will, but it’s very easy to make it a regular thing. To turn your open space into a venue is a huge boon to people who wish to perform, especially with regard to rules and regulations of your living space. Residential venues can usually be a lot more lenient than commercial venues.
I recommend:
–not planning to make money from it
–having a space that does not require sound amplification and large enough to house 20+ attendees
–keeping track of touring poets and invite them to come read
–passing a hat then giving most of it to the person you used to promote your event, i.e. a featured poet
–giving the rest of the money to anyone who goes beyond the call of snacks
–an hour of opener poets (1 to 2 poems each), then up to an hour for the featured poet(s)
–compelling people to bring food and drink
–coming up with a continuous format, mine is never-before-read works
–being a good host or finding a good host to keep the night cohesive
–letting people know it is their show too
–keeping it once a month or every other month
–acquiring folding chairs
You’ll be surprised at who will want to attend events like these and how easily word will get out about it if they maintain a certain quality. The sheer awesomeness of who has come through my kitchen is outstanding.
KITCHEN SESSION PAST FEATURES
KS#1 July 26, 2009 – Simone Beaubien
KS#2 August 15, 2009 – Lara Bozabalian & David Perez
KS#3 September 5, 2009 – Adam Stone
KS#4 September 27, 2009 – JW Baz
KS#5 October 23, 2009 – Jack McCarthy
KS#6 November 15, 2009 – Rachel McKibbens and Rob Sturma
KS#7 December 26, 2009 – Bill MacMillan
KS#8 January 9, 2010 – Sierra DeMulder
KS#9 January 26, 2010 – Blair
KS#10 February 27, 2010 – Khary “6 is 9″ Jackson
UPCOMING SESSIONS
KS#11 March ??, 2010 – 3 BRAND NEW POEMS PER SIGN UP (No Feature)
KS#12 April 17, 2010 – Karen Finneyfrock
KS#13 May 23, 2010 – RC Weslowski
KS#14 June 2010 – Geoff Trenchard & Jon Sands
That’s a full year of sessions. It’s so awesome to have this simple, little gig become something that is highly anticipated by a good chunk of New England spoken word folk. I look forward to them like no one’s business. I am always so stoked the day before and the day of.
If anyone starts up their own session of any sort and I am nearby, traveling through, and time permits, I will gladly come and perform.
If anyone already has a house show going on, please let me know. I am well aware of the White Haus in Jamaica Plain/Boston, but for some reason, I have yet to attend an event there. As for other events, pray tell.
———
Word to the nerd.
Bunny up.
This entry was written by , posted on 28 February, 2010 at 4:58 PM, filed under Uncategorized and tagged kitchen-sessions, massachusetts, Worcester-Massachusetts. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.