House of Words Open Mic

06/11/2026

🤔 io-who? io-where? io-what!? 🤔

This month’s open mic we have our normal sign up process AND the official Iowa poetry slam team Io-what Slam Team featuring!

io-what is preparing to perform at the regional slam NorthBeast in Boston, MA and this is your chance to hear the individual and group pieces they plan to compete with!

Make sure to make your way here to share your own work or simply appreciate community, art, and exceptional talent!

06/08/2026

📖 Alert: Debut Book 📖

This Sunday we’ll be raising money for the Grand Rapids African American Museum, AND celebrating the book release of TK’s debut collection!

Takayla P. Carlton, known as TK, discovered poetry’s transformative power for mental health navigation. She seamlessly blends sacred and secular themes with alliteration and vivid imagery, inspired by diverse communities. Her work aims to provoke introspection and represent marginalized voices in women, q***r, and Black communities. Alongside poetry, TK finds joy in running, fishing, and acting. With a Theatre degree, she explores art, identity, and self-expression, aiming to fulfill poetry’s divine purpose for her readers.

Yall will NOT want to miss this spectacularly moving show and a chance to support the Black stories in our city!

06/04/2026

☀️ SUMMER TIME ☀️

Start your summer off right with art & community! Our New Sh*t Sunday is the perfect place to spend time with good people, share stories, and feel connected!

If you’ve got a poem, rap, song, joke, etc that you’d like feedback on, join our writers’ room before the show at 4:30!

06/02/2026

June in Grand Rapids!

Mark your calendars for our 3 GR shows this month! It’s gonna be 🔥🔥🔥

June 7 - New Sh*t Sunday with hosts & .edwards

June 14 - Give Back Sunday for .gr with featured artist and her debut book! Hosts & .c.s.poetry

June 21 - Spotlight Sunday with hosts & .c.s.poetry

05/17/2026

Come on down to New Holland Brewing Pub for our Spotlight Sunday hosted by G Foster II aka AutoPilot! You wanna have the chance to get one of your poems professionally recorded, a song? Or your comedy set? You’ll show up to learn more. Show starts at 5:30pm

🕺🏾 Time to Celebrate! 🕺🏾

Let’s celebrate summer’s arrival together!! Bring your poems, songs, jokes, etc and show off the kind of shine the sun wishes it could copy!

05/15/2026

🕺🏾 Time to Celebrate! 🕺🏾

Let’s celebrate summer’s arrival together!! Bring your poems, songs, jokes, etc and show off the kind of shine the sun wishes it could copy!

05/14/2026

🎓 Let’s Shout! School’s Out! 🎓

We’ve made it through the winter, the spring is stepping aside for summer, and it’s our time to take the mic & have a good night!

Bring your poems, songs, jokes, or listening ears and celebrate the summertime liberation!

Afties at 🍔🍻

05/08/2026

On theme, this weekend we will be supporting a local organization that supports those first months of motherhood.

Emotional, physical, monetary support. We all know adjustments aren't easy, let alone one as big as becoming a payment.

So come down and support a cause and feel free to write something on theme yourself.

If anything our relationships with our mom's make for good art 😉

Get sassy. Get mad. Get mushy. Whatever.

Just get your ass to the house!

05/08/2026

On theme, this weekend we will be supporting a local organization that supports those first months of motherhood.

Emotional, physical, monetary support. We all know adjustments aren’t easy, let alone one as big as becoming a parent.

So come down and support a cause and feel free to write something on theme yourself

If anything our relationships with our mom’s make for good art 😉

Get sassy. Get mad. Get mushy. Whatever.

Just get your ass to the house!

04/30/2026

📝 We are all unfinished 📝

Join is this Sunday for another New Sh*t Sunday and share your unfinished, unpolished, idk-what-this-is work with a community that celebrates the process more than the product!

If you’d like some guidance on your work, be sure to show up early and attend our feedback workshop!