Failure Loves Company

Earlier, I featured at the downtown Orlando branch of Infusion Tea, which is in Urban Think, Orlando’s only truly independent bookstore. My set consisted of

1. Happy Birthday, Motherfucker
2. 25 Random Things About Me Divided By 2 – .5: A Meme
3. You + Me = Awwwww Yeah
4. Black & Blue
5. Archeology (w/crowd participation)
6. When Goth Kids Attack
7. Want

The open mic before was really good. One performer wrote a happy birthday song just for me, probably the nicest thing anyone wrote for me and another performed a hilarious persona poem from the POV of a fart. The stand-in host was spot on and he did an impromptu group poem with the regular host/show runner as a Happy Birthday. I sold a cd/chapbook to someone who never heard my work before and got his e-mail address for the slam’s e-mail list. However, the turnout was a little less than desired.

Downtown Orlando is one of the most challenging places to hold a poetry event, depending on where your venue is located. Most places, the parking is bad, and you either have to park in a garage not in easy walking distance, hope to find free parking at a meter after six, or park in a residential area and hope you didn’t park in a No Parking Zone. Year two of the Broken Speech Poetry Slam was in Guinevere’s, a three story building located on Magnolia and Pine which was split into a coffeehouse/performance space, an art gallery, and a theatre space/movie theatre. Great venue, but parking was a bitch. However, consistent promotion can overcome such a challenge, most of the time; that consistent promotion falls into the hands of the show runner, regardless of the stature of the featured act. The featured act can help bolster their attendance by street teaming, sending e-mails, handing out fliers, but the success/failure of the show falls under the show runner.

I know I could have done some things differently. I could have sent more e-mails. I could have asked the promoter why he wasn’t promoting me equally with his other bookings to spur him into promoting the feature more. If this ever happens again, I will do all of these things to make sure the show on my end is successful.

I have two features coming up, one in June at Urban Think as part of The &‘s Third Issue Release Party and in September at Bad Ass Coffee’s 1st Tuesdays. I will give y’all more details when I get them.