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Open Mic Project, photo (c) 2008 Peter Orozco
The Open Mic Project Recording Sessions
The Open Mic Project ran from 2007 until 2013, with various works by various spoken word artists having been committed to tape or digital files over the years. Several recordings from the archives can be heard on this site or are available through various other channels run or supported by the artists in question. What follows below is a complete list of works recorded as part of the project, in the order recorded, arranged by session date.
July 28, 2013
Deborah Victory
  • Fat Poem, take 1
  • Fat Poem, take 2
  • Fat Poem, take 3
  • Fat Poem, take 4
  • Cowboy
  • I Am Your America
  • I-35, take 1
  • I-35, take 2
  • I-35, take 3
  • I-35, take 4
  • Cry
  • Saying Goodnight at 4:30 AM
  • Her Graduation Pictures Came In
  • I-35, take 5
  • Break a Poet's Heart
  • My Name, take 1
  • My Name, take 2
  • For David, take 1
  • For David, take 2
  • For David, take 3
  • For David, take 4
  • For David, take 5
  • I-35, take 6 (announced as take 135)
  • I-35, take 7
  • For David, take 6
  • Learning What You Need to Know, take 1
  • Learning What You Need to Know, take 2
  • Rumble Thunder Blues, take 1
  • Rumble Thunder Blues, take 2
  • Rumble Thunder Blues, take 3
  • Prayer, Confessions, and Bite Marks
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March 10, 2013
Lilly Penhall
  • Practice Girlfriend
  • Untitled 6-25-12
  • She Makes Bad Ass Margaritas
  • Inaccessible
  • Midnight In The Middle of America
  • To The Homeless Man in the Yellow Jumpsuit
  • 7-9-12 West End Station
  • Be My Neal Cassady
  • Come Lie With Me
  • A Throatpierced Sound In The Night
  • Dragon
  • Yellow Balloon
  • Swimming Poetess
  • All That Cliché Shit
  • Today
  • On The Train
  • Inside the Fire
  • What the Fuck Happened to this Conversation?
  • Blues Deity
  • Antares
  • My Aphrodite/My Mecca
  • We Are Dogs
  • How Do I Word Thee?
  • Individualist Manifesto
  • August Friday Dallas
  • Jupiter's Wild Man
  • Avoid Ants
  • Beautiful
  • Within The Without
  • Elongated Shadows
  • Things
  • Half-Life
  • I Want To Be Water
  • Ode to the Unrequited
  • When I Die Take Me To City Lights
  • Write What You Know
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June 14, 2011
Josh Weir
  • Bill Blake's Jungle Cat Keeps Following Me, take 1
  • I Can Feel the Busted Tooth, take 1
  • I Really Decided to Write When I Was 17, take 1
  • Laid Out on Dead Grass
  • What Do They Want? Why Are They Here?
  • I Roll In Hard
  • I Really Decided to Write When I Was 17, take 2
  • I Can Feel the Busted Tooth, take 2
  • A Face in the Mirror, take 1
  • A Face in the Mirror, take 2
  • A Prayer
  • I Suppose There is Something Lacking (abandoned)
  • Her Looks Were Mediocre, take 1
  • Her Looks Were Mediocre, take 2
  • The Door Wakes Me Up
  • I've Never Met a Writer
  • Laying in the Bathtub Drinking Wine
  • I Set Aside My Beer
  • The Morning Drips Into the Room, take 1
  • The Morning Drips Into My Room, take 2
  • I Pick Up a Loaf
  • The Hounds of Hell
  • I Walk to the Beer Store, take 1
  • I Walk to the Beer Store, take 2
  • Bill Blake's Jungle Cat Keeps Following Me, take 2
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April 22, 2010
Shanna Hale
  • The Weight of Water, take 1
  • The Weight of Water, take 2
  • Dreams of Gold, take 1
  • Dreams of Gold, take 2
  • Dreams of Gold, take 3
  • Dreams of Gold, take 4
  • The Crayon Poem, take 1
  • The Crayon Poem, take 2
  • The Crayon Poem, take 3
  • Persephone Personified
  • Little Girl Lost, take 1
  • Little Girl Lost, take 2
  • Broken Boys and Brown Eyed Girls
  • In the Company of Wolves
  • Happy Ever After
  • Alice Grown Old
  • Little Girl Lost, take 3
  • Awakening
  • Madonna
  • Emotional Stability, take 1
  • Emotional Stability, take 2
  • Intimacy, take 1
  • Intimacy, take 2
  • Lady Icarus
  • This Morning
  • Once Upon a Time ("Untitled")
  • Broken Toys
  • The Shoe Poem
  • Nightmare
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December 20, 2009
Amy Weaver
  • Pearl
  • Generation Lost, take 1
  • Generation Lost, take 2
  • Generation Lost, take 3
  • Shadows and Spotlights
  • The Book Poem
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December 20, 2009
Jolee Davis
  • Bread and a Circus, take 1
  • Bread and a Circus, take 2
  • Bread and a Circus, take 3
  • Bread and a Circus, take 4
  • They Don't Sing, They Scream, take 1
  • They Don't Sing, They Scream, take 2
  • The Lost, take 1
  • The Lost, take 2
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November 23, 2009
Joey Cloudy
  • Intro
  • Evolution
  • Brownian Motion
  • The Call
  • Mask
  • Shiva 2 Kali
  • I Want to go to vietNam
  • Fanatic
  • Song of the Reed
  • All I Want is to Write the Poem
  • Fool
  • I Want
  • For Every Poet Contemplating Suicide
  • Enigmas
  • Margaritas And Marathon Sex . . .
  • Wick
  • Who Writes Love Poems for the Devil?
  • Bew
  • Fuck You
  • Momma's Dead
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May 24, 2009
Alex Pogosov
  • Jew, take 1
  • Jew, take 2
  • Jew, take 3
  • Jew, take 4
  • Jew, take 5
  • Jew, take 6
  • Jew, take 7
  • "Jew" disclaimer
  • Compton, California, take 1
  • Compton, California, take 2
  • Compton, California, take 3
  • Compton, California, take 4
  • Compton, California, take 5
  • Compton, California, take 6
  • Compton, California, take 7
  • Tuesday's Gone/Say Hello to Travis
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May 23, 2009
Gordon Hilgers
  • ". . . holding onto this oblivious place at rush hour . . ."
  • Farewell to the Bridge (announced as take 367,549,238)
  • To the Lady on the City Bus (announced as take 444,973,291 part B)
  • War of the Nail
  • Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass
  • Cloud Fragment 33
  • The Paradise Parade
  • Wall
  • Amaranth
  • Trafficker
  • The Lantern
  • Season Song
  • Weather Outlook
  • Punk Poem
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May 23, 2009
M.H. Clay
  • Stories
  • Tattoo
  • All Night Lanes
  • Bungee
  • Allegiance
  • The Grid, take 1
  • The Grid, take 2
  • Office Bitch
  • Note to Self
  • My Wine
  • Whip Snap
  • World of Promies
  • Ten Answers
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May 17, 2009
Opalina Salas
  • Untitled, take 1
  • Jack
  • To My Oceans 11, take 1
  • To My Oceans 11, take 2
  • In Progress
  • Skeletal Romeo
  • An Invitation to the Truth
  • Alcoholic's Lament
  • Does Me Good
  • Thirteen
  • 1234
  • OCD
  • Releasing Daddy-O
  • Untitled, take 2
  • Read My Lips for Unwritten Love Letters #49
  • It All Happens Somehow
  • You'll Write Again
  • I Just Wanted You to Know
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May 17, 2009
Johnny Olson
  • Ready or Not, take 1
  • Inheritance
  • Blue Notes
  • To Do, take 1
  • To Do, take 2
  • To Do, take 3
  • Sidewalk Silence
  • I Cracked Open My Lids, take 1
  • I Am Doing What I Can, take 1
  • I Am Doing What I Can, take 2
  • Ready or Not, take 2
  • Ready or Not, take 3
  • Blue Notes, take 2
  • Blue Notes, take 3
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May 18, 2008
ROAR! reading at Paperbacks Plus

Desmene Statum
  • Cowboy Skeleton
  • Blistered Guitar Fingers and Broken Note Blues
  • What I Gave Away
  • Not Complacent
Opalina Salas
  • Untitled
  • Read My Lips for Unwritten Love Letters #49
  • Clouds
  • Skeletal Romeo on the Microphone
  • April 2nd
  • Daughter
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February 10, 2008
Desmene Statum
  • Kinetic, take 1
  • Josey
  • More
  • Kinetic, take 2
  • Coagulation, take 1
  • Coagulation, take 2
  • Peter Piper
  • Coagulation, take 2a
  • Coagulation, take 3
  • Coagulation, take 4
  • Friday, take 1
  • Friday, take 2
  • Little Letters, take 1
  • Little Letters, take 2
  • Little Letters, take 3
  • Little Letters, take 4
  • Little Letters, take 5
  • Good Latimer Bridge, take 0
  • Good Latimer Bridge, take 1
  • Good Latimer Bridge, take 2
  • Justice, take 1
  • Justice, take 2
  • Coagulation, take 5
  • Kinetic, take 3
  • Little Letters, take 6
  • Little Letters, take 7
  • Penance, take 1
  • Penance, take 2
  • Woman of My Lovely Blasphemy
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July 8, 2007
Alex Pogosov
  • The Pimp Song, take 1
  • The Pimp Song, take 2
  • The Pimp Song, take 3
  • The Pimp Song, take 4
  • The Pimp Song, take 5
  • I Hate the Government, take 1
  • I Hate the Government, take 2 (announced as take 3)
  • Audio-Slave, take 1
  • Audio-Slave, take 2
  • Audio-Slave, take 3
  • Audio-Slave, take 4
  • Audio-Slave, take 5
  • Audio-Slave, take 6
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July 7, 2007
Johnny Olson
  • Fabulous Roman Candles, take 1
  • Fabulous Roman Candles, take 2
  • You Asked Me Why, take 1
  • Point of Departure, take 1
  • Tripped, take 1
  • Tripped, take 2
  • 23rd Street Psalms, take 1
  • Lost and Found, take 1
  • Waterline, take 1
  • The Teaheads, take 1
  • South of North take 1
  • Waiting Room Inspiration, take 1
  • 11,770, take 1
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 1
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 2
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 3
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 4
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 5
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 6
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 1
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 2
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 3
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 4
  • Beat Prayer, take 1
  • Beat Prayer, take 2
  • Beat Prayer, take 3
  • Joe, take 1
  • Dreamchaser, take 1
  • I Cannot take, 1
  • Reason and Rhyme, take 7
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 5
  • Imagination Ejaculation, take 6
  • Beaten Prayer, take 4
  • Fabulous Roman Candles, take 3 (w/intro)
  • Fabulous Roman Candles, take 4
  • You Asked Me Why, take 2
  • Waterline, take 2
  • Point of Departure, take 2
  • Point of Departure, take 3
  • 23rd Street Psalms, take 2
  • 23rd Street Psalms, take 3
  • South of North, take 2
  • Rest in Peace, Doctor, take 1
  • Rest in Peace, Doctor, take 2
  • Tripped, take 3
  • Waiting Room Inspiration, take 2
  • A Pigeon Shat on Me
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June 3, 2007
Shanna Hale
  • Happily Ever After, take 1
  • Happily Ever After, take 2
  • Alice Grown Old, take 1
  • In the Company of Wolves, take 1
  • The Dreamcatcher, take 1
  • The Dreamcatcher, take 2
  • Little Girl Lost
  • The Crayon Poem, take 1
  • Persephone Personified, take 1
  • Persephone Personified, take 2
  • Persephone Personified, take 3
  • Awakening
  • Directions
  • Madonna, take 1
  • Madonna, take 2
  • Madonna, take 3
  • Madonna, take 4
  • Emotional Stability, take 1
  • Emotional Stability, take 2
  • Intimacy
  • Lady Icarus
  • The Shoe Poem, take 1
  • The Shoe Poem, take 2
  • This Morning
  • Once Upon a Time, take 1
  • Once Upon a Time, take 2
  • Once Upon a Time, take 3
  • Once Upon a Time, take 4
  • Madonna, take 5
  • Happily Ever After, take 3
  • Alice Grown Old, take 2
  • In the Company of Wolves, take 2
  • In the Company of Wolves, take 3
  • The Dreamcatcher, take 3
  • The Dreamcatcher, take 4
  • The Crayon Poem, take 2
  • Broken Toys, take 1
  • Broken Toys, take 2
  • Broken Toys, take 3
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May 27, 2007
Alex Pogosov
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 1
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 2
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 3
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 4
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 5
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 6
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 7
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 8
  • In the Shadow of Generation X, take 9
  • January 16, 2005, take 1
  • January 16, 2005, take 2
  • January 16, 2005, take 3
  • January 16, 2005, take 4
  • January 16, 2005, take 5
  • January 16, 2005, take 6
  • January 16, 2005, take 7
  • January 16, 2005, take 8
  • January 16, 2005, take 9
  • January 16, 2005, take 10
  • January 16, 2005, take 11
  • January 16, 2005, take 12
  • January 16, 2005, take 13
  • January 16, 2005, take 14
  • January 16, 2005, take 15
  • Advice to Poets, take 1
  • Advice to Poets, take 2
  • Advice to Poets, take 3
  • Advice to Poets, take 4
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May 13, 2007
Alex Pogosov
  • Guitar Man, take 1
  • Guitar Man, multiple incomplete takes
  • Guitar Man, take 2
  • Folsom Prison Blues (Hannibal Lecter version), take 1
  • Folsom Prison Blues (Hannibal Lecter version), take 2
  • The Prostate Song, take 3
  • The Prostate Song, take 4
  • The Prostate Song, take 5
  • The Prostate Song, take 6 (announced as take 5)
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May 12, 2007
Michael Machicek
  • Intro/Always the Iconoclast, Never the Icon
  • The Credo
  • We
  • To My Goddess, Tanya
  • Odes to Tanya, take 1
  • Odes to Tanya, take 2
  • Full, take 1
  • Full, take 2
  • Beyond Infinity, take 1
  • Beyond Infinity, take 2
  • Beyond Infinity, take 3
  • One
  • Book Intro/A Shavian Dilemma, take 1
  • A Shavian Dilemma, take 2
  • Voyage of a Damned Soul Through the Sea of Truth
  • Am I the Victim or the Crime?
  • Jesus, Judas, an' the Apple Tree
  • The Grotesque Guest
  • Live On, Levon
  • A Hidden Destiny
  • Dedicated to Nancy Eileen Gregory, take 1
  • Dedicated to Nancy Eileen Gregory, take 2
  • Anthem for Our New Universe [The New Universal Anthem], take 1
  • The New Anthem for Our New Universe, take 1
  • Anthem for Our New Universe, take 2
  • Anthem for Our New Universe, take 3
  • Anthem for Our New Universe, take 4
  • Anthem for Our New Universe, take 5
  • The New Anthem for Our New Universe, take 2
  • The New Anthem for Our New Universe, take 3
  • The New Anthem for Our New Universe, take 4
  • Phenomenology, take 1
  • Phenomenology, take 2
  • Life on the Sun
  • Grokkin' at the Hookah
  • New World Anthem, take 1
  • New World Anthem, take 2
  • Bodhi (for Samia)
  • Creative Collaboration with Samia
  • Now and Zen
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May 5, 2007
Max Earl Blair
  • St. Crispin's Day
  • Goth Code, take 0
  • Goth Code, take 1
  • Goth Code, take 2
  • Goth Code, take 3
  • Goth Code, take 4
  • Goth Code, take 5
  • Goth Code, take 6
  • Wild Things, take 1
  • Wild Things, take 2
  • Wild Things, take 3
  • Wild Things, take 4
  • Wild Things, take 5
  • Three Young Orcs
  • The Twenty-First Century
  • The Messy Room, take 1
  • The Messy Room, take 2
  • The Messy Room, take 3
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April 21, 2007
Desmene Statum
  • Mic check
  • "Nothing like the first page . . ."
  • Woman is the Sun With Moons in Her Belly, take 1
  • Woman is the Sun With Moons in Her Belly, take 2
  • Cowboy Skeleton, take 1
  • Cowboy Skeleton, take 2
  • Cowboy Skeleton, take 3
  • Cowboy Skeleton, take 4
  • Useless
  • Sweeter Than Sweet, take 1
  • Sweeter Than Sweet, take 2
  • Sweeter Than Sweet, take 3
  • In the Doorway, take 1
  • In the Doorway, take 2
  • In the Doorway, take 3
  • In the Doorway, take 4
  • Mexican Redhair, take 1
  • Mexican Redhair, take 2
  • Letter to Mama, take 1
  • Letter to Mama, take 2
  • Letter to Mama, take 3
  • Letter to Mama, take 4
  • Conflict, take 1
  • Conflict, take 2
  • E-Mail to Self, take 1
  • E-Mail to Self, take 2
  • Lorraine's Diary
  • Baby Whales, take 1
  • Baby Whales, take 2
  • Baby Whales, take 3
  • Baby Whales, take 4
  • Baby Whales, take 5
  • Baby Whales, take 6
  • Baby Whales, take 7
  • Forgiveness, take 1
  • Forgiveness, take 2
  • Forgiveness, take 3
  • Forgiveness, take 4
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