Holy crap! We have a blog! And a ton of exciting announcements, updates, and opportunities for you all to help make Chicon Street Poets bigger, better, and weirder than ever.
Hey everybody, Haley here! At our open mic last night I got to announce a bunch of exciting new ways Chicon Street Poets is growing, including this blog! We’ll use this space to keep you updated on what we’re working on, publish writing tips and how-tos, interviews, maybe Q&A’s with local authors… the list goes on!
Last night we also talked about a really special new element we’re adding to our open mics: reader spotlights!
We’re going to add one five-minute slot at the midpoint of the open mic to show a special reader a little extra love. Our amazing volunteer Gabee suggested this as a way to keep our events open and accessible to the whole community (nothing’s changing about our usual 20 reader spots!) while also lifting up voices we don’t always get to hear in literary spaces. Best part? YOU can nominate folks for the spotlight! We’re especially interested in readers from marginalized communities and folks we haven’t heard at Living Room Lit before, so get in touch through any of our social handles or email us at chiconstreetpoets [at] gmail to send us your suggestions!
On top of all that, we’re doing our best to expand our stable of events so everybody can have a little more CSP in their lives. Admin member Mason just wrapped up our very first CSP Presents event. He’s also working on a small writer’s workshop, plus some super cool collaborations with other local orgs that are going to be AMAZING.
Much as I’d like to say we’ve got infinite resources to do all this stuff, we’re a bitsy little group run mostly on gumption, stubbornness and enormous amounts of love. I’m working on getting us grants, sponsorships and more to ensure every event we put on is magnificent, and we’ve even got some stickers you can buy at our events, with more merch on the way if those grants come through! But if you love what we do and feel like throwing an extra dollar or two our way, you can now do so through PayPal, Ko-Fi or Venmo (@ChiconStreetPoets).
I want to stress that no matter what, Living Room Lit open mics will always, always be free. The more curated events we’ve got planned will be as close to free as we can make them (like requesting suggested donations instead of ticket sales). From the beginning, we’ve been committed to making this a community organization that’s open to everyone. Whether or not you feel like adding a couple dollars to our tip jar, some of the very best ways to support our work are sharing social posts, telling folks about our events, inviting your friends, and continuing to come out and share your work. We’re incredibly lucky to have such a phenomenally kind and talented community of writers and artists surrounding us. It’s a joy to support your work, and we’re beyond thrilled to give you even more in the months and years ahead.
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CSP