New Year’s Open Mic at the Cafe Kafka

It was a terrific Open Mic at the Cafe Kafka last night. Lots of energetic performance poetry in English and German – one of the highlights was a rendering of a poem from Sharing the Pumpkin: traditional poetry from the Indian North Americas. There were also limericks in English, German and Wienerisch – the latter two presented as Pigericks (in honour of the pig that brings luck at New Year) and Wienericks (in Viennese dialect). Michi read a surprising abecedarian and two more of the poems from her collaborative project that is bound to find a publisher. Special guest poet was Pakistani Writer in Exile, Aftab Husain, and visiting poets from Graz, Germany and Toronto were also there with some stirring stuff. It was a great start to the New Year, and speaking of pumpkins, I did manage to get home just before midnight. I’ll have to miss the next couple of events, though, as I’ll be in Oz until Easter, but I’m looking forward to the May Open Mic and will be sure to report on what it was like.