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Poetic beats boom at the Beat Cafe in Warren
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The Beat Café is located North of 12 mile at 29200 Hoover. Nestled in the President’s Tuxedo Plaza the Beat Café offers a variety of tasty treats and entertainment. Aside from the delicious fare of espresso, coffee, tea and tasty sandwiches the Beat Café provides a wonderful selection of special events that can be enjoyed in a comfortable, neighborly atmosphere. Saturday, June 20 was poetry night, as it is every 3rd Saturday of every month, beginning at 7 o’clock.
Open mike night is the form for the evening with anyone and everyone welcome to participate. The notable poets of the night included Carla Dodd, Mary Minjeur, Mike Stenberg, James Bankert and William B.Burkholder. The buffet of talent was surprisingly diverse.
Carla Dodd kicked of the event with “Time off for good behavior” capturing the ordeal of waiting at the DMV. Carla who has recently moved from St. Louis, often captures the annoying minutia of daily life in a clever poetry scheme. A journalism major, she has edited for several on line poetry publications, and has begun her love affair with poetry in the eighth grade. A poetry assignment was offered in lieu of the one assigned to the rest of the class. Carla jumped at the chance, seeing how she thought the all class assignment was terribly dull and a poet was born.
Mary Minjeur is someone you might pass in the supermarket without notice. However, a chat with the sixty-three years young poetess immediately leaves the impression that to pass her by would leave one’s life significantly poorer. Mary slight limp was noticeable as she approached the stage. She had knee surgery just the day before, but refused to miss poetry night at the Beat Café. On stage what Mary fails to fill with her small frame she fills with her volcanic passion and delight. Her poetry is a reflection of her life. Her joy, pain, transition is all out there for the world to see without pretension and egotism. Mary effortlessly avoids the pitfall of putrid sentimentality and draws her readers in with a wit and charm worthy of Oscar Wild.
Mike Stenberg has a secret weapon and it is the element of surprise. His tall frame, unassuming spectacles and shorts, t-shirt summer wear did nothing to prepare the audience for the ‘raw stylings of Stenberg’. Bold and strong, like a good espresso, he roared and screeched all the way to the stage before reciting a “Tribute to Godzilla”. With a Janice Joplin like abandon Mike ambushed the audience with topics of teenagers, disease, and a little state alphabet soup. Painful topics with a twist of Stenberg certainly makes it go down easier, but it is the laughter he draws that make him so likable. When asked about the role poetry has played in his life he simply says, ‘It has always been my coping mechanism.’ Mike’s poetry creates an image of a man who takes life head on, embracing the good, bad and ugly as it comes. Mike, who has retired from GM after 32 years, has had poetry featured in Labor Pains a volume dedicated to the plights and tribulations of the factory workers.
William B. Burkholder is the founder of the Beat Café poetry night. A Michigan native he grew up on the shores of Lake Erie where he has drawn inspiration for much of his poetry. A twenty-year veteran of the United States Coast Guard at first glance William does not strike an impression of the poet type. The impression quickly changes when his slightly gruff voice wraps around the listener with tones saturated with meaning. William is a more traditional, old-school poetry reader that is easy to listen to as well as appreciate. His mellow tone leaves the listener with a feeling of having been here before. The audience is filled with a comfortable nostalgia that leaves the impression of reuniting with a long lost friend.
Join the Beat Café poets at open mike poetry night every 3rd Saturday of every month beginning at 7 o’clock. (Contributing writer Alyona Schluraff)
Check out upcoming events at the Beat Café on www.myspace.com/beatcafewarren
Check out more of Carla’s work in progress at www.yourewritedear.com
Contact Mary Minjeur about her book at minjeur@att.net
William B. Burkholder’s poetry books are available for sale at the Beat Café.
Hear and see Mike at the Beat Café 3rd Saturday of every month (Mike Stenberg)
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