- This event has passed.
Indy Reads Lit Stage Open Mic
May 30 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
The word Lit is short for literacy, the mission of Indy Reads! Lit is also a popular Black cultural word that means something is entertaining or exciting.
The Lit Stage open mic welcomes people of all ages, art forms, and languages to share your talents with our shared community. Open mic performances can include singing, monologues, skits, dancing, comedy, poetry and essay reading, and more!
Performers are welcome to use the stage area, podium, and microphone. We ask that performances keep to about 5 minutes. Participants can perform again if time allows.
Please note the Lit Stage open mic is family friendly. Explicit language, gestures, and behaviors are not allowed. If you are including music in your performance, we require radio edits only.
Thomas Kneeland is an Obsidian writer and poet whose research explores ancestry, ecological memory, and the effects of intergenerational trauma Afrocentric communities. His poems appear-or are forthcoming-in Prairie Schooner, Columbia Journal, Modern Language Studies Journal, The Rumpus, Pamenar Online Magazine, The Amistad, South Florida Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. He is the author of the chapbook, We Be Walkin’ Blackly in the Deep. A finalist for the 2022 Frontier Poetry Global Poetry Prize, he has received grants and fellowships from the Indiana University-Indianapolis Speculative Play & Just Futurities Program and the Central Indiana Community Foundation. He was recently named a 2025 Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Kneeland was previously a Writing Faculty member for the LEDA Scholars Aspects of Leadership Summer Institute at Princeton University. Originally from California, and raised in Mississippi, he holds an MFA in creative writing from Butler University and is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Anderson University.
This event is Pay-What-You-Can. Here’s what your suggested donation can do for the Indy Reads community:
FREE – This ticket is for attendees that would like to attend this event and are unable to purchase a ticket. Indy Reads values our community and facilitators. We are proud to provide programming to all. Thank you for being a part of our community!
$10 – This donation covers the cost of one attendee to this event. Indy Reads strives to bring the very best programming to Fountain Square and all Hoosiers. Thank you for helping us to keep our quality programs accessible for all!
$20 – This donation covers the cost of two attendees to this event. If you are attending as an individual, your ticket at this level makes it possible for another who cannot afford a ticket to attend. It is only through the generosity of our community that we are able to support programs that enrich the lives of all Hoosiers. Thank you for your support!
Other – “Pay-What-You-Can” really does mean pay what you can. Indy Reads appreciates that every one of our community members is able to support our vision of 100% literacy for all in different ways. Whether you can pay $5 or $50, we are so excited to see you – and thank you for your support!