The People’s Mic at the Poetry Festival
The People’s Mic
12:00pm - 6:00pm
Join us for curated performances and open mic opportunities! This is an electric, drop-in session of freestyle expression, spontaneous collabs, and mic liberation. Share a poem, a song, a story — or just vibe with the community.
Hosts
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Poetry and Spoken Word Performances
Christine Stephens-Krieger
Christine is Grand Rapids’ 8th Poet Laureate (2024-2027) and it's her mission to recognize, celebrate, and uplift Grand Rapids poets. To this end, she completed An Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids, which was donated to the Grand Rapids Public Library's Archives in 2024.
This project was made possible through her many poetry connections forged from years of community service, including coordinating the time-honored, prestigious Dyer-Ives Poetry Competition for 14 years. She’s a longtime poetry event coordinator and has been mixing with local poets since the 1990s.
As co-founder and co-president of The Grand River Poetry Collective, this current public endeavor is meant to publish Grand Rapids poets and foster a poetry culture where we all uplift each other.
2:00pm - 4:00pm
PRIDE Takeover
Hosted by Rosie Accola
Rosie Accola
Rosie Accola is a queer guido, writer, and reporter who lives in Michigan with two very large cats. They graduated with their MFA from Naropa University in 2022. They released their first poetry collection Referential Body with Ghost City Press in 2019. Their first novel, Supernormal Stimuli, which follows a wily group of queer guidos, is out now with Bullshit Lit. You can follow them on Instagram @rosieaccola and on substack.
4:00pm - 6:00pm
House of Words Takeover
Hosted by the H.O.W. Open Mic team!
This segment will allow poets, and other performing artists to express open-mic style. But, there’s a twist: performers with top audience ratings will have a chance to have a full set, professionally recorded!
House of Words
Caleb Rainey
Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey is an author, performer, and event producer. His debut book, Look, Black Boy, was awarded first prize in the North Street Book Prize, and his second book, Heart Notes was published in 2019. He released two spoken word albums and produced his first short film, Willing to Grow, as a part of the Brucemore Artistan in Studio program. In 2024 Caleb was the recipient of the Iowa Author Award for Poetry. Within the same year, Nik Heftman and The Seven Times production company created a documentary about Caleb titled, The Negro Artist. Caleb is the winner of several slams across the United States, and competed in the 2023 UNESCO Slam-0-Vision global poetry slam where he ranked 7th worldwide. Videos of his performances can be found on his youtube channel, Write About Now, and Button Poetry. When he is not writing and performing he is actively curating a community of spoken word poets in Iowa City through his high school program, IC Speaks, and producing events like the Mic Check Poetry Fest.
Gleason
Gleason is an author, poet, and performer with a compelling story and powerful voice. Raised in an evangelical church where their faith was at odds with their spirit, Gleason’s art explores themes of religious trauma and mental health while reclaiming the divinity of queerness. They believe in pipe dreams and that words have the power to change the world. Gleason’s work has been commissioned by local and national organizations and they have spoken and performed at TEDX events, Pride festivals, education conferences, and universities across the country. Their work has been featured by NPR, Pride.com, Curve Magazine, and DivaMag UK. Gleason's voice captures audiences, bringing them on a journey of vulnerability, humor, and empowerment.
