I hosted the Monday night open mic at Angela’s on Sept. 5th. As it turns out, I’ll be hosting the open mic every third Monday, with some exceptions. Be that as it may, on the fifth I opened the show. People began to show up as I finished my set. Bah Jaz followed me with some nice instrumentals on guitar.
Keith Dzygun (Dijun) played next with some cover tunes. Rachel Stokes followed with a bass player and guitar player – collectively called Salt and Light. Temi George was next, followed by Johnny Cromer. Then Allen Larson played his usual eclectic set. Pamela Pantea and Dianna Rice harmonized nicely on some standard hymns. Eric Jones played a nice set of his tunes.
During Eric’s set, Shaquilla Hooks, who had signed up to be next online just that evening, made sure I knew she had signed up. It had occurred to me earlier to check online for new signups, so I knew. I asked her what she was going to play or need. She said she was just reading poetry. So I thought, cool, some spoken word.
Shaquilla sat on the stool, grabbed the mic, and started reading a poem. It was a nice poem and I was getting in to it. I began to wonder where it was going. It was obviously about a particular person. She became nervous and it showed in her reading of the poem. She reached a point, looked behind me, and continuing the poem she said “Will you marry me?”
The person behind me was Chris Hatcher, who works at Angela’s. Naturally, he said yes, and everything stopped while they hugged and she cried. With time left, and no one else signed up, Eric played a few more tunes. During which time I took the picture shown here. It was the first proposal I have seen at an open mic – much less one I was hosting.
Have you ever had someone propose at your open mic? Or something similar?
Peace be with you.
