hosting
<imagine a big grin at you> no, not hosting a cocktail hour, or a celebrity roast or a three-family barbecue or a dinner for twelve. I do not shine at those, or I suspect I do not, and have never tried. I have watched in awe as guys I knew pretty much as ordinary people did outstanding jobs at them. no, my hosting is of a narrower variety. I host poetry events. in particular, I am the host or co-host for three sequences of poetry readings in Los Angeles. I host the Nebraska Girls at Beyond Baroque open mic in Venice. I host the Westwood Branch Library Open Mic in Westwood. And I co-host the Last Saturday of the Month Open Mic in Encino - Tarzana. I think I do them well, although if anyone has graded me I don't know of it, and I don't know what criteria they would use to assign a grade. I pretty much imitate what I saw Jason Brain do with his Soapbox Sessions, and what I saw Rick Lupert do at the Cobalt Cafe, back when I first started participating in poetry in Los Angeles in January of 2010. I wound up taking on each of these three hostings in 2012, I believe, so I didn't take long going from participant to host. as well as I can tell, I host well, although I have no doubt I could do better. I think the host has three responsibilities: to honor the venue, to honor the participants, and to honor the featured readers. we honor the venue by protecting it, by arriving early to help with or do the setup, by making sure nothing gets damaged, and by making sure that our event doesn't offend any participants or hosts of other events at the venue. (the venue is the place where the event happens.) we honor the participants by getting there early, by having the chairs and microphone (if there will be a microphone) setup by the time the participants begin to show up, by welcoming the participants, by having sign-up be an orderly and hospitable process, by bringing the participants up in the order they expect or explaining a departure from that, and by thanking them as they finish their participation. we honor the featured readers by inviting them early enough that they have time to prepare, by greeting them when they arrive and showing them the facility if necessary, or telling them our (loose) plan for the event, by introducing them to the audience, by listening attentively, by appreciating them when they finish, and by thanking them again at the end of the event. in a sense, the main duty of the host is to provide a hospitable environment, and to make sure we behave politely while the event goes on. so you see, the job is aptly named. I have been doing it for about four years now, and thoroughly enjoy it. come see me sometime. I bet I make you feel welcome. <imagine another big grin at you>
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