At Kalamazoo’s Mic Check & Connect, art is the icebreaker

Editor’s Note: All photos were taken by Casey Grooten, unless otherwise noted.

KALAMAZOO, MI — This is not just another open mic.

On a chilly Tuesday night at Crawlspace Comedy Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo, people gather under warm, inviting lights. Some of those in attendance are tentative, some confident and eager. 

Between sets of spoken word, poetry, and music, the mics are intentionally silenced for another purpose: conversation and networking. 

A simple prompt is given to the audience by the emcees, and strangers turn to one another, sharing introductions and reflections on the art they just witnessed. The audience members also respond to the prompts, often reflecting upon personal beliefs and experiences.

This is Mic Check & Connect, Kalamazoo’s newest experiment in creative expression and artist networking.

Show up. Speak up. Link up. 

Those phrases, which can also be seen on the events’ posters, encapsulate the purpose of these gatherings: show up for art, share your art, and make a new connection.

Open mics have long been a staple of Kalamazoo’s arts culture, events where poets, musicians, and performers can step into the spotlight and share their stories. When this reporter was fresh out of the Creative Writing Program at Western Michigan University back in 2011, open mics and poetry readings took place in houses like a grunge basement music scene. For better or worse, there were a ton of opportunities to share something you wrote.

Over the years and leading up to COVID-19, the open mic scene started to fade. Poetry bedrocks like Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative kept the open mic light alive with their First Friday Open Mic (they claim to be the longest-standing open poetry mic in Michigan).

And now, the open mic count in Kalamazoo has proliferated, with sometimes a dozen monthly publicized events.

But as Mic Check & Connect co-hosts Markeva Love and Gabriel Giron explain, the magic here emerges not just from performance, but from connection.

For Love, launching Mic Check grew out of an observation she had after her own poetry readings: too often, after an artist finishes a piece and the crowd applauds, people leave, with little chance for conversation. 

“Sometimes you go to open mics, and it’s just like everybody gets on the mic, and then you go home, and you’re like, ‘Okay, now what’s next?’” she says. “This event lets you sit down with other artists whose work you enjoyed, and build that network, that community, so it’s not just showing up and going home.”

Love’s perspective echoes with many in Kalamazoo’s creative scene who seek something beyond the applause. Love began writing and performing poetry just a couple of years ago, and is now a staple at many literary arts events in Kalamazoo and the surrounding areas, not just as a performer, but also as an organizer, host, and emcee. For Love, ”relationships are priceless,” and art should fuel those connections.

Giron says that for him, the event was born out of a desire for intention. 

“I was missing some sense of connection and community,” he tells Second Wave.

Giron is no stranger to the spoken word, poetry, and open mic scene in Kalamazoo. A multi-award-winning poet and keynote speaker, he is co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Speak It Forward, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping youth and adults find their voices and share their stories through arts, spoken word, and workshops. 

Through Speak It Forward, founded in 2009 with the late Kirk Latimer, Giron has spent years exploring how storytelling and vulnerability can build connection and community. Mic Check & Connect takes place at Crawlspace Theatre, a downtown venue located inside the Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition building.

Kalamazoo clearly has a thriving open mic culture, but Giron wanted one with an explicit invitation to network, to share in conversation, and to deepen the bonds between artists and audiences alike. Giron says he sees networking as a natural extension of artistic expression rather than something separate.

Why now?

Love, who currently serves on the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival board of directors, points to alignment, love of human connection, joy in shared experience and creative expression, and a desire to build a community of purpose. 

For Giron and Love, the timing just made sense: a moment when people are eager to reconnect in real life, pushing past the racket of social media to find authentic connection — in person.

Giron describes the drive to build relationships as more than a cultural trend. “I think people are tired of feeling isolated,” he says. He notes that even though social media promises connection, it often leaves people craving real, physical presence. Mic Check & Connect meets that need, offering not just a platform to perform, but a “village,”  Says Giron.

“I love that there’s at least two or three open mics happening per week,” Love says. “And being able to direct people to other ones if ours doesn’t suit them.” 

For Love, the increase of events is indicative of a community that wants to be with each other, to explore their creativity, and feel supported.

Giron notes that Kalamazoo packs a punch when it comes to its arts community, as being extremely supportive and encouraging of experimentation and expression. 

At Mic Check & Connect, folks aren’t just sharing their poetry and music, they’re sharing their contact info, their projects, and their philosophies. People swap business cards, announce upcoming shows, and make plans to collaborate. It’s the kind of intentional networking that Giron and Love envisioned, and it is what sets this event apart from a typical open mic night.

When Second Wave attended the first Mic Check & Connect, Giron offered every attendee a playing card when they arrived. Then, at the first break, the audience separated into groups based on the suit of their card. Participants were then asked to talk about a defining moment of the last year. 

One individual spoke about getting engaged, another’s family member had passed away, and this writer spoke of their open-heart surgery. Instead of simply transitioning quickly from one artist to the next, Giron and Love invited us to pause and engage with each other in a real way.

“Even if you come alone,” Love says, “I hope people walk away with a sense of comfort, connection, and maybe even future collaborations.”

Giron imagines collaborations unfolding, creating unexpected artistic partnerships. 

“I hope people will get better at their craft,” he says, adding also that established artists will share insights with emerging ones.

Where art meets economy

Both Love and Giron are mindful that Mic Check & Connect is just getting started. They have aspirations for sustainability and growth. Love wants the event to flourish even beyond their own involvement, to be able to come back after moving away from Kalamazoo to find the open mic series thriving and still a vital part of the art scene. 

Giron, mindful of the economic realities of being a working artist, says he wants to secure sponsorships that allow artists to be compensated for their time and talent. He wants this space to not just be welcoming, but financially sustainable, a place where art and livelihood can co-exist.

Looking back at the first Mic Check & Connect, both hosts agree it exceeded their expectations. The room was full of engaged listeners, conversations, and participants who leaned into the networking prompts. The vibe, they say, was respectful and supportive. People didn’t just attend, they stayed.

Mic Check & Connect isn’t just contributing to Kalamazoo’s arts calendar; it’s already helping shape the city’s artistic identity. By emphasizing connection over an isolated attendee experience, the event models a different way of being together through art. 

Kalamazoo is a city that loves its art, both hosts agree, and the intention behind what Giron and Love have created in Mic Check & Connect is proving that when you invite people not just to speak, but to listen to one another, something powerful occurs.

The next Mic Check & Connect takes place on 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 10 at Crawlspace Eviction Theatre.