The host of a weekly creative exhibition has designed a safe space for writers to express themselves
By: Zoie Karagiannis
Bampot House of Tea and Board Games is located on Harbord Street in Toronto. It’s the home of Write On! Write Now, a literary open mic hosted by Jen Frankel. (Mia Johnson/CanCulture)
As an accomplished author, screenwriter and musician, Jen Frankel has a lot on her resume. She has written several novels spanning across all genres, including horror, fantasy, science fiction and the supernatural. Beyond her creative career, Frankel consistently aims to help people become better at their craft. She says her philosophy is to never put her own stamp on someone’s work or make anyone feel as though they’re having their voice taken away, but rather make suggestions that will help them get to their next draft. Frankel has been writing for about four decades, beginning seriously in her teens.
Most recently, she has become the creator and host of Write On! Write Now: Literary Open Mic Night in Toronto. Through this platform, writers are able to express their artistry in a safe environment.
At every weekly open mic, typically 10 to 20 creatives gather at the Bampot House of Tea and Board Games, a cozy teahouse with a Bohemian-like atmosphere and shelves-upon-shelves of board games to enjoy. From a senior Canadian sci-fi writer with a decades-long publishing record to a 19-year-old reading poetry for the first time, Frankel has seen artists from all different backgrounds.
At around 10-years-old, their youngest speaker Joseph read an excerpt with his mother, Alisse Lee Goldenberg, from a book they had written together. Titled Lucky at Bat, their creation is set to come out in December of 2022, and follows the story of a boy named Jack and his two rescue rats — one of whom has a talent for baseball. Goldenberg is the mother of triplets and a writer living in Toronto.
“Apparently he had so much fun he wants to come back!” Frankel says, laughing.
Since she was around 20-years-old, Frankel has been hosting literary open mics in whichever city she found herself in. She wanted to provide an outlet for people to demonstrate their creativity.
“I try to be very encouraging and welcoming because I don’t want people to feel like they're going to be critiqued,” Frankel said.
She began hosting Write On! Write Now events in late-April, starting bi-weekly and moving to every Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Jen Frankel also runs an online drop-in for writers, where once a week she is able to work on prompts and exercises, checking-in with fellow writers and interacting with them. (Courtesy of Jen Frankel)
Frankel says a lot of those who attend are university students who stumble across the open mics by accident. While some simply stay to listen, many have found the courage to go up and share their pieces.
Along with the skilled writers reading excerpts from their works, the Write On! Write Now stage has welcomed stand-up longform comedic monologues, scripts of screenwriters’ original soap operas and poems recited by artificial intelligence. Frankel fondly recounts intriguing poetry readings following the stream of consciousness of Lilith, a demonic figure of Mesopotamian mythology.
At the end of every performance, the room erupted in applause, the sense of support and community filling the air
The night I attended, I had the privilege of listening to a reading from The Face in the Marsh, a 2019 psychological thriller by Canadian author Elizabeth Hirst. As her pacing and tone set the scene, and as I held onto her every word, the twists and turns throughout the story had me constantly at the edge of my seat, awaiting and anticipating what was coming next.
The same night, I also listened to a first-time reader who had announced she was there to try public speaking and a man who had been presenting different chapters of his story every week. At the end of every performance, the room erupted in applause, the sense of support and community filling the air.
“It’s always transformative when you put work in another medium,” Frankel shared. “You learn a lot about your work as a writer if you speak it out loud – it can change entirely.”
She said that while you should write for yourself and not for others, knowing how different people will be impacted by your writing is valuable. Her open mics provide an opportunity to see how one’s stories can resonate with others.
Frankel believes young poets can benefit from hearing from more experienced writers — those who understand how to compose poetry by digging into the rhythm of their own words and the swings of their own phrases.
Through her open mics, she has fostered a built-in acceptance for the underrepresented voices and stories that don’t often get heard. She emphasizes the importance of showcasing and hearing from different perspectives; without representation, other writers and listeners may not feel acknowledged or welcomed.
“We’ve had some young poets who have come from Syria and the Middle East, and they have these lived experiences and are very active as human rights activists,” Frankel noted. “When they share them, you see those who were born in Canada become eye-opened, and you see the places where they recognize their own human experiences. I love seeing their responses.”
Frankel also understands that for many writers, platforms for getting their work out are not accessible to everyone. As someone with experience in the publishing industry, Frankel tries her best to promote websites and databases of publishers and agents to those who want to pursue a career in writing or get a story published. She always wants to make sure people feel their voices are strengthened and embraced.
“No one as a writer is in competition with anyone else. We all have our own ideas and our own voice,” Frankel said.
Frankel also hosts a Hamilton Literary Open Mic for Keeping Six, an established harm-reduction organization that advocates for the rights of people who use drugs. There, writers with lived experience or knowledge of substance abuse, or who simply know someone who's been affected, are able to present their work. She hopes to start a second Write On! Write Now in Hamilton, the place she calls home.