Euro Atlanta Wednesday Open Mic
Outside of Euro Atlanta, there is not a food truck selling a quick meal cheap for hungry patrons. Instead, there is a truck with African American art, paintings of black faces and Atlanta locations in wooden frames spilling out from the truck’s parted side panel door. Imagine a world where people aren’t stuffing themselves on food at the corners of Peachtree and Piedmont, but instead are consuming art at trucks spread throughout the city. That is the kind of world Euro Atlanta is seeking to create outside of its place of business.
In an oblong building that used to be a bank and still has a vault, according to their website, Euro Atlanta is a black owned Caribbean restaurant and lounge located on Paces Ferry Road in Marietta. Only a few miles from Five Points, Midtown, and Buckhead, Euro Atlanta has an active weekly schedule of events, from R&B Bingo to I Love Reggae Night to karaoke to Poetry Night every Wednesday. Starting at $7.61 if you go to perform, to $13.26 if you’re just there to watch and enjoy, I Love Poetry Night is made possible by Wendy of Love Sparks Life.
The time listed for I Love Poetry Night on Eventbrite for the show to begin isn’t the actual time of the show starting. You can sign up as early as 6 p.m. to read poetry, but the event doesn’t actually start until 8 p.m. As of the writing of this article, it would be advised to arrive around 7:30 p.m., which should give you plenty of time to get your name on the list. On the night of July 30th, only a handful of poets signed up, and afterwards anyone who wanted to share their craft could just come to the stage.
The pieces read that night were diverse, from an ode to black men to a ballad about a bad job and COVID, to a vibrant spoken word rendition about nice guys finishing last but being the ones that should be chosen first. The host opened the event with a spoken word act that required audience participation and had the crowd signing a three line refrain about not giving a f***.
Euro Atlanta had a packed house that night. Poets and spoken word artists who wish to perform in front of an encouraging audience should definitely visit the venue and add your voice to the lineup. Every Wednesday starting at 8 p.m., it’s a gem of an event in Hotlanta.
