(car zooming) - Next up on the microphone.

- [All] Where they at?

Where they at?

Where they at?

- Please come up all the way to the stage for Pamela Lee.

(crowd cheering) (bright music) - My entire body frigidly cold, it cannot be warmed.

My entire body burning hot, it cannot be cooled.

This is when I know it is poetry.

- Monday Night Poetry is basically an open mic centered around poetic expression.

So it's not like your traditional open mics where you have musicians and comedians.

It's centered strictly around poets.

- It is in downtown Reno, so it's bustling.

For the most part, it's a community where everyone's invested in what we're trying to do, which is celebrate the art form of poetry.

And we've democratized fame in a way in that anybody can come off the street and share five to six minutes.

- [Iain] So a typical night at Monday Night Poetry starts usually when Jesse shows up, he sets up everything, puts the list out, and then once the list is out, people are free to show up and sign up.

- [Jesse] We do 10 slots, and then we have a group photo.

- Poetry!

- Brief intermission, and then 10 more slots.

And then people are done for the night, - Which is why some call me The Godfather.

Thanks for that.

- The goal is to make the poetry as an art form that we love, both page poetry and performance poetry, to make it accessible to everyone.

It is free to attend Monday Night Poetry.

The only stipulation is you have to be over 21.

It was a fairly dead night before.

Now, Monday night might be the busiest night of the week at Shim's, even busier than Friday or Saturday.

And that's depending on the week.

- There to catch me.

See y'all, I need to catch my breath.

I need to catch up on my sleep.

I need to learn how to sit still.

And to be honest, I've just been exhausted.

My name is Iain Michael K. Watson, and I'm learning to be better than my yesterdays.

I'm learning to say no more often.

I'm learning to love my imperfections and be kind to myself.

And there is still so much work I have to do.

Thank you.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - We started, the very first Monday Night Poetry was held at 6:00 PM January 3rd, 2022.

So each year, the closest Monday to January 3rd, we've celebrated birthday.

It was just a beautiful, beautiful night for me to be there as a host to see how much the community really celebrates what we're doing and looks forward to it each week.

- Heavenly twin, they know each other well.

Opposites have a story to tell.

After all, when push comes to shove, you're either in fear or you're in the bottom.

(crowd clapping) - So the chants and the snaps and all the callbacks, that comes from the poetry scene in general, just kind of what a spoken word open mic should look like because it's not a typical poetry reading.

You want to bring a lot of energy.

You want the crowd to participate.

You want them to feel like they're part of something.

- So the where they at.

- [All] Where they at?

Where they at?

- It's just a way to get the audience charged up for each individual performer.

Ways for people to respond audibly are the snaps.

If somebody excels what's worthy of snaps, then you get into the mmm, almost like you have peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.

It's usually short, kind of pithy aphorisms that are meant to be encouraging, but not so much that they're distracting - Like a comedian.

A comedian needs that instant gratification when they tell a joke and they need to hear people laugh because if you don't get laughter, you're like, "Oh, okay, I'm tanking."

So poets don't need as much of that.

But it's when you have a line and you're like, "Okay, I think this is a good line," and you deliver it and you hear the reaction, you're like, "Yes, that was a good line."

- [Jesse] Come all the way to the stage for Pax please.

(crowd cheering) - I am a poet and I've been coming pretty regularly for over a year.

It happens every Monday night, so I'm here most Monday nights, and a lot of my good friends come here too.

It's a big community in my life.

All right, this one's called "For the Curly People."

The Truckee River was straightened for the sake of efficiency, the first river in the US to be unbent.

Armies of engineers writing their equations on curves.

So doing this every week has helped me as a poet exponentially.

I'm always inspired by the other poets here, all the different styles.

And then just having a built-in audience makes you wanna write more.

Like if you have something to say, there's someone who's gonna listen.

And so you want to say it.

- The path a loose leaf chooses with the wind, curves of hope shooting through the darkest nights.

Ride those waves, they will bring you home.

Thank you.

(crowd cheering) - Monday's my favorite day of the week now, and I used to dread Sunday night, going back to work the next day.

And now on a Sunday night I'm thinking, well yeah, I've gotta go to work tomorrow.

But then when I'm done with the day, I get to start my week off on the right note, and I get to see my friends, and I get to see my chosen family, and I get to encourage people, and I get to see people light up, seeing people increase in confidence that were painfully shy to begin with and now they can't wait to share.

That is a magical experience for me as a host.

- That's one thing I've always been proud of is just having a platform where people can connect and feel like they're seen and they're heard.

And I just think that's really worth its weight in gold is just having a community and a safe place that people want to be in.

- Here's the thing about honesty and love.

Neither is fully possible without the other.

Much like friendship, much like family, much like belonging, much like us.

(gentle music)