On Monday October 26th, the coffee house Wake the Dead hosted an open mike night for local poets, musicians, and writers to share their Halloween oriented work. The coffee house overall was a really interesting combination of art and Tim Burton with its red and black striped walls and the local art on exhibition throughout the domain. There were a large number of attendees though only a few were dressed for Halloween and even fewer wrote for the Halloween theme. I found this somewhat disappointing and even further, that the events only went on for an hour. However, the live music, poetry and written work was very good, varying from funny to touchingly emotional and the hour really flew by with much interest. The coffee, as this is a coffee house, was excellent of course and the hazelnut chocolate cookies were amazing! Honestly, I would go back just for the cookies. Once the performances were done, most of the people crowded into the front of the building to talk and mingle and I soon found myself out the door and on my way home. As things go, the Wake the Dead open mike event was an interesting and thought provoking event with an excellent ambiance, but I don't think it was really worth the 30 minutes my friend and I spent looking for parking upon our return to campus.

***

out of 5 stars

~Kiva McFetridge