Open Mic Night and all the feels — a note from Mari, Kim, and Asifa
Looking over the shoulder of someone typing on a computer and Mari writing on a clipboard. There are pictures spread out on the table.
Hello Bright Hearts!
Asifa, Kim, and Mari here! If you don’t know us yet, we’re three of the coaches at Firefly, and we also create and run all of our programming specifically for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour.
We’re taking over the airwaves today to tell you a bit about what has been lighting us up, and how we’re growing.
We just had our 3rd Annual Open Mic Night for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) and we are on cloud nine.
There’s something truly magical for us about a space where People of Colour can gather with strangers and friends to have their voices heard and to be witnessed in a (perhaps) new way.
Here’s a note from each of us about what this means.
Mari here!
There’s been a moment in every Open Mic Night where someone will take themselves off mute and in a slightly wobbly voice say, “I’ve never read my writing to anyone before…” And then they’ll go on to blow us away with the power of their words.
I live for those moments. To show up in a new crowd and trust it to gently catch your words with kindness and understanding — it is an honour to witness.
Now Kim…
I love that there was a whole mix of people at this latest event — some familiar faces, who have been coming to our BIPOC programming for years, and those who were brand new to Firefly.
At one point someone asked in the chat, "Do you do BIPOC writing workshops too?" Before Asifa, Mari, or I could answer, a bunch of the attendees piped in to say how much they love all our programs. It really felt like a community.
And Asifa…
The level of trust in all our spaces, and especially at the Open Mic Night was so beautiful to me.
I saw a lot of expansion and digging deeper from the participants who’ve been with us for a while, which I think helped newcomers feel brave to share their writing too.
Courage is so inspiring!
We’ve grown our BIPOC programming a lot this year.
We are now deeply in a groove with our drop-in program twice a month. For small group workshops, we’ve got Exploring Our Racialized Identities and we recently ran a BIPOC version of one of our most popular workshops — Lift Off. We are currently dreaming of a BIPOC version of Writing Towards the Body.
We also gathered a bunch of writers and braved the cameras to make a video about our work! Thank you to Dom Productions for creating this, and making it as easy as possible.
Mostly, we just want to keep finding people.
We believe in the importance of this space, and we’ve all personally gotten so much wonder and growth from it. We want to reach more and more racialized writers — and keep growing our community, our courage, and our voices together.
Theologian Desmond Tutu said, “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."
100 percent, yes. We feel that when we’re doing this work.
Questions? Ideas for future programs? We’d love to hear from you (especially BIPOC Fireflies!) to know how these programs can keep expanding.
With big open hearts,
