Caffè Lena Poetry Open Mic Featuring D. Colin & Martin Willetts Jr.

This monthly event, hosted by Carol Graser, takes place on the first Wednesday of every month and includes an open mic reading as well as featured poets. Sign up for the open mic starts at 7:00 and readings start at 7:30. November’s featured poets are D Colin and Martin Willitts Jr. D. Colin has performed her poetry around the United States and internationally. In 2016 she was the poet in residence for Voices of Community in Putney and Brattleboro, VT. She is a Breathing Lights Grant recipient for poetry workshops for teenagers with a focus on bringing awareness to abandoned homes plaguing communities. She has competed in several national Slam competitions, winning 3rd place in 2016 and 1st in 2017. She curates a weekly poetry/spoken word series called “Poetic Vibe” at Troy Kitchen that has featured poets from Baltimore, Toronto, Buffalo, Hartford, New York City, Springfield and Newark. Her first collection of poems and prose, Dreaming in Kreyol, is an homage to her Haitian heritage and history. Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian living in Syracuse, NY and is the Poetry Judge for the NY State Fair. He is the winner of 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest; 2014 Broadsided award; 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Award; and, Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2015, Editor’s Choice. He has over 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 11 full-length collections including "How to Be Silent" (FutureCycle Press, 2016), “Dylan Thomas and the Writing Shed” (FutureCycle Press, 2017), “Three Ages of Women” (Deerbrook Editions, 2017).