Lit Café series comes to a bittersweet end Dec. 10

The first time I heard about the poetry readings at Tremont’s Literary Café, I was told there would be heckling.

“We didn’t want to be like anybody else,” says Steve Goldberg of the series that he co-hosts with Nick Traenkner on second Thursdays. Anyone who has ever attended poetry night at the Lit Café can confirm that they’ve more than accomplished that goal.

Goldberg and Traenkner met by some fate (or perhaps karma) four years ago on a quiet night at the Lit Café. As the only bar patrons for the evening, they quickly found common ground in a mutual love of poetry. Lit Café owner and bartender, Andy Timothy, entered the conversation, and by evening’s end, the three had formulated a vision for putting on a show.

Now, four years and 67 featured readers later, this exuberant, bombastic, and beloved but oddball gem of the Cleveland poetry scene will come to an end with a finale on December 10.

Although the end product seen by the poets and audience often “looks like a chaotic mess,” as Goldberg puts it, he cites hours of work that he, Traenkner, and Timothy put into making each show an exciting success.

Traenkner puts time into creating a fresh and eye-catching internet banner graphic for each show, in addition to elevating the energy of the crowd in his role as emcee. Indeed, Traenkner’s introductions of the featured readers—extensive epic tales that have entered Cleveland lore of themselves—are often just as much a part of the evening’s entertainment as the poets.

Timothy, holding a degree in filmmaking from the Cleveland Institute of Art, films all the features and portions of the open mic readings to post online. And although posting video on the internet may not seem like much of a feat in 2009, four years ago, the Lit Café was one of the first poetry venues in the nation to post online videos. In fact, shortly after they began the series, they started getting emails from venues nationwide asking about the technical aspects of the Tremont show.

And while Goldberg rarely takes center stage on the night of the shows, he does most of the prep work, booking the features, carefully pairing poets who complement each other, writing a creative new promo for each month, and doing his best to make sure that they continue to live up to the high standards they set for themselves.

That original vision involved becoming a “nexus point” where the isolated and diverse groups of poets throughout Northeast Ohio could meet, mingle, and collaborate. They also wanted to break down the barriers between poet and audience, showcasing poets with an ability to both write quality poetry and connect with the crowd while reading.

“I really wanted to do something for the audience,” Goldberg says of the way he plans each show to keep it fresh.

And Goldberg knows about being an audience member. With no formal background in poetry, he nevertheless found a necessary escape from his day job—engineering—within poetry. The three years prior to starting the Lit Café series, he spent his free time in self-study, not only reading, but also attending almost every poetry reading he could find in the Cleveland area. Seldom participating in the open mics, Goldberg was that rare person in a poetry audience: someone who just wanted to listen.

“I saw what worked and what didn’t work, what I liked and didn’t like,” he says. And although he says that he felt then and still feels like a newcomer on the scene, he brings that personal objectivity and conviction to each show.

The 67 features who have read during the series—only a few of whom have featured more than once—make up a select crowd. Goldberg admits of himself and Traenkner, “Neither one of us thought we were good enough to be features.” And so they sought out poets who were.

In speaking about the end of the reading series, Goldberg uses words like “tired” and “bittersweet.” Both he and Traenkner have new projects and ideas that they would like to channel more energy into, and they also hope that an open time slot in the local poetry schedule might give another person the opportunity to begin something else new and exciting. However, they declined offers by others to take over the series at the Lit Café.

“We created a brand,” Goldberg says, by staying true to that original vision, and no one else could quite espouse that same aesthetic born on that karmic night of drinking.

However, Goldberg assures us that the end of the series will not be the end of poetry at the Lit Café. They still expect that there will be a smattering of “special nights.” In addition, look for the impending launch of a book of “Penpad” poetry, a compilation of the spontaneous poetry written by audience members during the readings at the Lit Café.

Everyone is encouraged to attend the historic finale of the Lit Café series on Thursday, Dec. 10, starting at 9:30pm. The evening will welcome back the Lit Café “all star” features from the past four years. The Lit Café is located in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, 1031 Literary Road, Cleveland, OH. You can also visit Goldberg’s blog  to read past write-ups for poetry nights.