Dan Weingarten, ’13, Founder of Minds on Mic

Background information:
 
Emory junior Dan Weingarten established Minds on Mic, a spoken run poetry organization at Emory, when he was a freshman in 2009. Minds on Mic enthusiasts participate in writing circles, open mics, performance crews, and slams.

The inspiration for Minds on Mic came from the strong poetry community in Dan’s hometown of Los Angeles. The community inspired him to “create an organization that provides a safe space for artists to share their work,” Dan said. Anyone can join, and can choose their desired level of commitment.

Minds on Mic in depth:
 
There are essentially 4 divisions of Minds on Mic.
 
The first is the weekly writing circles where students meet and write according to a prompt provided by the person leading that week.
 
“The cool thing about the writing circle is that anybody can lead whether they’re a member or not,” Weingarten said. “It creates a sense of community amongst writers, and allows them to have time in the week that they can dedicate purely towards their craft.”
 
The second part of the organization is the open mics. They are held on the first Wednesday of every month in the Common Grounds Coffee House (located under Canon Chapel) at 7 PM.
 
“Open mics provide a great vehicle for artists to develop their performance and writing skills, and be able to share their work without competing,” Dan explains.
 
The third element of Minds on Mic is the slams, which are original poetry competitions. The performances at a slam are judged on a numeric scale (1-10) by five audience members. Last year, Minds on Mic sent its first team to College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) and placed in the top 25.
 
Dan says that Minds on Mic plans to send another team this year, and the team members will be those who are successful at Minds on Mic slams. The top four poets from each of the 3 slams in the fall will move onto the Grand Slam in January where they will compete for a chance to be on this year’s CUPSI team.
 
The final part of the organization is the performance crew, which is the newest component of Minds on Mic. Crews of 10 people will practice every week and perform throughout the Atlanta area. Auditions for the performance crew will take place soon.
 
Join Minds on Mic or Attend their Events:
 
For more information, contact Daniel Weingarten at dweing2@emory.edu. Also, look out for their Facebook events by joining the Facebook group and following the tumblr account.