By Andrea Peña
Staff Writer

Dagny’s Coffee shop held the monthly Poetry Open Mic on First Friday, Oct. 3. Dagny’s offered a back room for poetry night for people to express themselves. The room was overflowing, not an empty seat in the house. The night began with a 20-minute reading from the featured poet, Geoffory Dyer, and then offers the stage to any volunteers.

“[It] opens the floor to do the poetry regardless of where they are, regardless if they are a newbie or if they are a seasoned poet. It’s open to anybody and there is no judgment,” said Tanya Dixon, a regular to Poetry Night who has been writing for over 20 years.

People from all walks of life came out to share and support, even a few students from California State University, Bakersfield. Usually, when people think of poetry night, they would expect works with rhymes; however, many people came with a variety of art, such as, spoken word, song lyrics, and singing.

“I love words. And I love the rhythm of how words move and how you can make them move… when someone’s speaking they are speaking directly to your heart,” said Dixon.

This event gave people the chance to express their feelings, thoughts or maybe something that didn’t even relate to them. Everyone in the room was very supportive of anyone that had the floor. Some go for personal growth, some go to challenge themselves, and everyone has a different reason for attending this poetry open mic.

“There are a lot of people out there that maybe otherwise wouldn’t have the nerve to go and speak in front of a lot of people, but because of this close tight knit community they’re able to come out and maybe be that outrageous person for 15 minutes” said Shawn McQuilliams, a 32-year-old English major at CSUB.

Poetry night began about six years ago at the Russo’s bookstore. However, Russo’s closing wasn’t going to put a stop to people’s expression through words. Since the event has been moved to Dagny’s coffee shop it has been said that the outcome has never been better.

“Kevin Shaw started [this event] on a Thursday, and my son mentioned ‘why don’t you have it on First Friday? People are here having a good time doing arts and all of this’” said Portia Choi, the event coordinator of Poetry Open Mic.

People believe that you need to have a prestigious writing degree to be an amazing poet or to even share their work with the world. For some, they are just naturally gifted and are able to make art out of words. Everyone has something to share with the world. It may not be perfect, but it is important.

“Time Magazine famously ranked us [Bakersfield] as one of United States least literate cities […] so I think there are lots of people in Bakersfield and Kern County that actually like poetry even though it’s famously the medium where more people make it than consume it,” said Dyer, the featured poet for the open mic night.

Poetry Open Mic Night is an amazing event that people all over Bakersfield need to experience. If you are looking to find a way to express yourself, next month’s featured poet will be CSUB’s Shawn McQuilliams.  So come lend support to our fellow Roadrunner. Snap, snap.