Last saturday Blackdog Coffeehouse held their Open Mic Night which featured several performers including some West students and our very own Starving Artist Poets Society. The coffee house continued to stay busy through the night and filled with poets from several schools.

Writer’s Workshop teacher Dylan Carter came to cheer everyone on, even if they didn’t attend West. Shawnee Mission West Alumni Cam Kirk brought a box of Starving Artist T-shirts for the team, and was the first performer.

The night was filled with poetry. Some made you laugh others made you cry. There were several stupendous performances bringing a wonderful vibe to the coffee house. A little girl about the age of 7, inspiring everyone with her Dr. Seuss rhyme.

The Starving Artists debuted their Louder Then A Bomb collaboration piece where they talked about the hardships of writing a collab. The group consisted of seniors Eli Southwick, Brianna Cole, Triston Parr, and Emma Van Deventer. I asked Emma about the tribulation of creating the collab:

“Triston really wrote the basis of the collab but we each put our own twist on it. It took awhile to finish it and we would practice before school, the week of LTAB, and during seminar,” Van Deventer said.

The night at Blackdog over all went well. Many people from school came to support our poets. The owner of Blackdog Coffeehouse hopes to continue having open mic nights.