The beginning of the new fall session has brought back Ottawa U’s beloved Café Nostalgica, which has prompted the return of the equally beloved Blue Mondays poetry series.
Blue Mondays is a monthly poetry, music and open mic series hosted on the third Monday of every month by the Undergraduate English Students’ Association’s (UESA) VP Literary and Publications, Mia Morgan. Morgan’s job on the UESA is to not only run Blue Mondays, but also to publish our university’s literary journal, The Ottawa Arts Review (OAR) and organize other UESA literary-oriented events on and around campus. Outside of the UESA, Mia is an active member of Ottawa’s spoken word community as a performer. This is Morgan’s second year running the series and says this will be the better of the two.
Due to campus renovation we lost Café Nostalgica last year which made it difficult to find a permanent venue for the series. However, “[t]his Monday, the show is returning to its original home at Nostalgica, and we are extremely happy to be back!” Morgan exclaimed. Her challenge this year is to find a good balance between spoken word and literary poets being featured, as well as finding performers associated with the University of Ottawa. “Our performers [so far] are Kay’la Fraser and Benoit Christie, with more to be announced as soon as possible!” Morgan revealed.
Kay’la Fraser is active in the community as a literary and spoken word poet and is currently working on a one-woman play. Benoit Christie is a singer-songwriter that can be found improvising songs at open mics all around the city.
Monday September 16th is the very first night of this year’s Blue Mondays series. It begins at 8:30 pm at Café Nostalgica at the corner of Cumberland and University. The night will be divided between open mic sessions and the featured performers. For those who have never attended Blue Mondays or other poetry shows, the open mic session is a time when members in the audience can sign-up to perform their own poetry, read someone else’s or even showcase their own musical talents.
Mia Morgan welcomes you to join her and the UESA at Café Nostalgica this Monday for the show and hopes to hear some new voices during the open mic!
Photo Credits: Designed and created by Mia Morgan