Social Justice Poetry Slam & Open Mic
Open Mic
Open Mic on Wednesday!
Bring your poetry, short prose, and other creative pursuits! Come to participate and share, or come merely to listen and admire. All are welcome. Wednesday night, November 16th, from 7:30 to 9:00pm.
Open Mic Night – Presented by BSU
Event: Poetry on the Patio
Poetry & Prose Slam 2018
- What: The Annual Poetry & Prose Slam
- When: Wednesday, November 14th from 7:00 to 9:00PM
- Where: GCC Main Campus, Room SU-104
- Why: Money, vague threats involving Mountain Dew (see below)
The Poetry & Prose Slam is upon us, looming on the horizon like a bird or a sun or a hitchhiker you’re desperately trying to avoid locking eyes with. Well, it’s too late. We see you. Sitting there, all comfortable and “mobile” in your Ford F-150s and your Toyota Priuses and your non-descript mountain bikes. Listen, either you pull over now or we follow you back to your house, tip over your refrigerator, and soak all your dish towels in Mountain Dew Code Red.
What we’re trying to say here, figuratively, is that you should attend this event.
More than that, you should read and compete in this event. Bring your original and creative writing–poetry, short fiction or nonfiction, song lyrics, and any other genre we haven’t listed that you can read in about three minutes or less. Read it before our friendly, Mountain-Dew-drinking judges and guests, and then maybe win a little money. It’s not often we get paid for our creative work, after all, so take advantage.
In order to participate, you’ll need to fill out a simple entry form that you can download and print right here: Registration Form. If you forget to grab a form, no worries, we’ll have extra entry forms available at the event. The slam is open to everyone, student and non-student alike.
November Events & Highlights
With October behind us, it’s time to look at all the great November events and news relevant to CRW at GCC.
Spring classes are open and ready to be filled. We have our usual stalwarts of CRW150, CRW160, and CRW170. Plus, we also have more unique and special offerings like CRW202: Witness Writing and CRW251 – Worldbuilding. Whether you’ve taken courses with us before, or you’re thinking of taking that first step, we have plenty to offer. See our full list of offerings and course descriptions here: Spring 2019 Classes.
Our final Saturday workshop for Fall 2018 lands this weekend on November 3rd. Laura White, in all her clever glory, presents Fight Die Love: The Hardest Scenes to Write. In this workshop, which is free and open to all, Laura will talk about scene doctoring, making sure you get the most out of your prose, be it short-form fiction, long-form fiction, or creative nonfiction.
Our annual Poetry & Prose Slam falls on Wednesday, November 14th from 7 to 9PM. Come read your work, come win some money, and come have fun at GCC after dark. The competition is open to the public, GCC student and non-student alike. There’s money on the line! Stay tuned for more details and guidelines, coming very soon.
The Magical Library writing competition, put on by the kind and creative folks in GCC’s library, ends on Friday, November 2nd. They’re accepting short fiction, flash fiction, and poetry incorporating the theme of “magical library”–all interpretations welcome, but only GCC students may submit.
The Traveler, GCC’s Arts & Literary Magazine, is still accepting submissions for this year’s issue. The Traveler accepts short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and one-act plays, but only GCC students may enter. The deadline is November 18th! For full guidelines, and to submit online, head here: Submit to the Traveler!
And not to be outdone, the Maricopa Community Colleges are holding an even bigger contest: The District Writing Competition. If you’re a student at any of Maricopa’s community colleges, you’re eligible to enter. Much like The Traveler, you can submit your short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and one-act plays. So, whatever you decide to submit to the Traveler you should also submit to the District Writing Competition! Enter here!
Know of a creative writing or artistic event taking place in November? Let us know and we’ll add it to the calendar.
Social Justice Poetry Reading
As we work through the final weeks of Spring 2018, we encourage everyone to take advantage of our special April events. The last reading for Spring 2018 is Wednesday, April 18th from 7PM to 9PM outside GCC’s Student Union. There are more details in the flyer below.
Creative Writing Events Imminent!
Presidents’ Day still affecting your internal clock? Surprised it’s Wednesday already? Wondering what to do this week? Wonder no further. There are a host of creative writing events this week, starting tonight:
Wednesday (2/21): Open Mic at GCC Main, in SU104e. From 7PM to around 8:30PM. Featured reader is GCC’s own Mike MacDee.
Thursday through Saturday (2/22-2/24): Desert Nights, Rising Stars Conference, hosted by the Virginia G. Piper Center at ASU.
Saturday (2/24): Shared Spaces – An Evening of Dance, Music and Poetry at the US/Mex Border, hosted by Cochise College
Open Mic: Featuring Mike MacDee
It’s taken several years, over thirty open mic readings, the tears of numerous children, an eye of newt, an uprooted and discolored patch of crabgrass, careful deconstruction of the lyrics of Phil Collins, and your credit card numbers, but we have finally achieved what we sought out to achieve with these open mics: a featured reader with the first name Mike. How could we possibly top this? (Incidentally, if you or someone you know goes by the name “Open” and is interested in a featured reader spot at March’s event, please contact us.)
Even if your name is something other than Mike, we still want you to show up, we still want you to share your creative work with us, and we still want you spend an hour or two commiserating with other creatives at GCC. We hope you’ll read, but if you’d rather listen to the works of others, that’s fine too. We don’t restrict content, so these events aren’t normally suited for young humans. Water and snacks with high sodium content might be provided.
- What: Open Mic Event, Featuring Mike MacDee
- When: Wednesday, February 21st from 7:00 to 8:30PM
- Where: GCC Main Campus, SU-104E
- Why: Open mic events are how Phil Collins got started*
*Editor’s note: This probably isn’t true.
About the Featured Reader: Mike MacDee has been trapped in Arizona for as long as he can remember, not unlike General Zod was trapped in the Phantom Zone in Superman II. He even has a cool beard just like Zod. Unlike Zod, he is a pretty nice guy, and also a published author, cartoonist, comic author, and game designer who works with dogs as his day job. You can check out all of his projects at MikesToyBox.net!
Special Event: Poetry on the Patio
GCC Creative Writing 
