Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam

We had an incredible time at the Lizard Lounge Tenth Anniversary Celebration. For me, it started early putting up decorations with Jeff, his friend Wesley (Malcolm X to Jeff’s Martin Luther King, Jr. in the play “The Meeting”), Margot, Trish, Joey, and the Lounge staff. Wesley was a master at our toughest job - blowing up all those balloons. Suzanne, the manager, was setting up for all the wonderful food the Lounge contributed, including my favorite - the gigantic martini glass filled with Hershey’s kisses! Trish’s nieces made my other favorite - two DELICIOUS and beautifully decorated chocolate cakes to pay tribute to the Jeff Robinson Trio and our Tenth Anniversary. Our former doorman and longtime Lizard Love Keith aka DJ Axel Foley was there to spin records and infuse the house with the proper beats. Jeff invited all the musicians who sub or have played for us to sit in with the Trio and set up early. Our gorgeous and fabulous bartenders Brynn and KC were on hand to serve food and drinks. Our doorwoman and sister poet Meghan took the night off to party with us. Some of our former staff and regulars joined us. I was thrilled to meet the owners who have been so supportive to us over the years - they seemed to have had a great time as well and joked that in the beginning they didn’t think the Poetry Jam would last six weeks never mind 10 years.

We had a packed house. The first hundred people through the door got a CD of the Jeff Robinson Trio that Jeff had made for the occasion and a T-shirt that management surprised us with that has a lizard and a mic on the front and congratulations for “Ten Years of Words, Beats, and Love” to the Poetry Jam and the Jeff Robinson Trio on the back. Billy Beard, the booking agent for the club who first gave Jeff the gig, designed the fabulous T-shirts and was on hand to help us celebrate. A select few – Jerome, Blake, Trish, Tom our SLAM scorekeeper, and yours truly SlamMama – got from Jeff special Lizard Lounge Poetry Jam canvas bags, which I’m sure will be all the rage! Trish had special gifts for the band as well.

I hosted the SLAM, which was high energy and the stage an obstacle course with the DJ and all the band members’ gear, adding to the excitement. The sign-up sheet was overfull before 8 PM - we can only have 8 slammers but people added numbers to the list. I asked the additional slammers to come back next week. (Our SLAMs have been full pretty much all this year, so come early to sign up!) I easily found judges early on who did a great job. AfroDZak won the SLAM and went on to play trumpet with the band for the rest of the evening.

The feature, commemorating the work and lives of Thomas Grimes and Lisa King, was wonderful and moving. Jeff set a beautiful tone by reminding us that as poets our words live on even after we are no longer here. Friends and family of Thomas and Lisa shared their favorite pieces by the authors with humor, grace, and much love.

Bryonn Bain, a longtime Poetry Jam supporter and one of my favorite poets who was on our first national SLAM team, made a special appearance to host our open mic with his usual vibrant spirit and enthusiasm and brought along two other superstars from the national scene – Stacyann Chinn and Jason Carney. They, along with our own Regie Gibson, gave wonderful performances. Because of the large crowd, however, many people who signed up were not able to get on the open mic and Bryonn didn’t bring poets up in order, so there were some hurt feelings, including mine, at the end of the evening. I had prepared a special dedication for the Trio but did not get to present it until after the bar had closed. But, it was a wonderful evening nonetheless and I hope anyone who had wanted to read comes back next week – it’s Iyeoka’s feature and we’ll be continuing our celebration!!!