Hosting the room

No, it is not a comedy night, although comedy clubs use the same phrase and the same sign-up mechanism; a poetry open mic is a poetry night, and the difference matters most to the host, because the room you advertise is the room you get.

The shape of the evening

The shape of the evening rests on one decision made before anybody arrives: how long the night is and how many people are in it. A 2 hour night with a 15 minute break holds about 14 slots at 3 minutes each plus one booked feature, and that is the shape most weekly nights settle into. Venues give away a quiet weeknight or a Sunday long before they give away a Friday, and a quiet night is the better room for beginners anyway.

• Open the doors and the list 30 minutes before the poetry starts.
• Close the list when it is full, and say out loud that it is closed.
• Start within 5 minutes of the advertised time every week, because a late start trains people to arrive late.
• Run 7 poets, break for 15 minutes, run the feature, then run the second 7.
• Finish when you said you would, because the venue, the buses and the parents of your younger readers work to that time.

The list, and the running order you read out

The list and the running order are two different things, and treating them as one is the commonest mistake a new host makes. The list is the order people signed; the running order is the order you choose to read out, and you may change it as long as nobody waits all night and is then cut. Put a confident regular first to set the temperature, and put first timers second, third or fourth, never last and never straight after the feature, because both positions are hard for an experienced poet and brutal for a beginner. Ask on the sheet how to say each name, write it phonetically beside it, and separate two poets who have brought work on the same heavy subject.

Timekeeping, and how to introduce people

Timekeeping is a mechanical job and should look like one, so that being timed is never taken personally. Agree the limit in front of everyone at the start, and agree the signal: a hand raised at the front of the room at time, a second raise 10 seconds later, nothing after that. Never cut a microphone in the middle of a poem. Say once, at the top of the night, that an overrun by one poet is taken out of the last poet on the list, and you will not have to police it person by person.

Introductions are at their best 4 words long: a name, said correctly, plus the fact that it is a first time if the poet asked for that. Do not review the poem before it is read, do not recite a biography, and never be funny at somebody's expense. Afterwards, say the name again.

What a host does when a poem goes wrong

When a poem goes wrong, the host's job is to bring the temperature down, and 5 failures are worth rehearsing before they happen.

1. A poet dries. Say nothing for 4 seconds, then say take your time, then offer the paper. Never finish their line for them.
2. A poet is overcome. Ask quietly whether they want to carry on or sit down, accept either answer, and start the applause yourself.
3. A poem meets silence. Thank them by name in the tone you used for the last poet and move on, because the room takes its reading from you.
4. A poem attacks somebody present, or is racist, misogynist or harassing. Stop it, state the house rule once, and do not debate it from the microphone. Speak to the poet afterwards, off the mic, with another adult present.
5. A poem discloses harm. Treat it as a disclosure and not as material, which is set out below.

Shaking hands are not a failure and should not be handled as one, so name nothing from the stage and keep the room quiet during poems.

House rules that make a room safe enough for a fifteen year old

The house rules that make a room safe are short enough to read from the microphone in 40 seconds, and reading them aloud every week is what makes them real. Say: one poem or 3 minutes, whichever comes first; bring your own work; give a content warning before a poem about self harm, abuse or violence; no filming or photographing anybody without asking first; no heckling; and the person to find if something goes wrong is standing here.

Where under 18s read, 3 further things are the organiser's responsibility rather than the venue's. First, the room: a licensed bar may lawfully exclude under eighteens whatever your intentions are, so a library, bookshop, arts centre, school hall or youth club is usually the right choice. Second, a named adult accountable in writing for each young person there. Third, vetting, where the body depends on the country. In the United States, background checks on adults working with young people are run by the school district, library system or youth organisation under its own policy and the law of that state. In the United Kingdom, criminal record checks are made through the Disclosure and Barring Service in England and Wales, through Disclosure Scotland's Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme in Scotland, and through AccessNI in Northern Ireland, and whether a check is required at all depends on the role rather than on the event.

A disclosure inside a poem is the situation every host of a youth room should have thought about in advance. Do not react on the microphone, do not name it to the room, and do not promise the writer you will keep it to yourself. Speak to them quietly afterwards, tell the person responsible for safeguarding in that setting the same day, and follow the written policy that setting already has. Running poetry with young people covers the weekly version of this for the teacher, librarian or youth worker.

The microphone, and what the room needs

A mic and a microphone are the same object: mic is the everyday short form, and no poetry room distinguishes between them. The stereo pairing techniques recording engineers argue about, such as ORTF against XY, belong to studio work and not to a live room. A host needs one dynamic vocal microphone on a boom stand, one lead, a small powered speaker or the venue's own system, and somebody who knows where the volume control is. Set the height for each poet rather than letting them stoop, and teach the one rule of technique that matters: hold the microphone about a fist from the mouth and just below it, so that the plosives pass over the capsule instead of into it. A microphone amplifies vocals; it does not repair them.

How people find your night

People find your night through local channels and almost never through a national listing. Make one flyer carrying the date, the time, the address, the age policy and the sign-up rule, and put it in the library, the bookshops, the college and the venue. Post the same 5 facts online on the same day each month, tell the hosts of other nights so they announce you from their microphone, and say the next date from the stage before anybody leaves.

The words matter too: a listing that says poetry open mic is found by people looking for a poetry night, while one that says open mic alone is found by musicians and comedians. Where your night sits among the other rooms is mapped in The stage and its circuit, and The open mic describes the same evening from the point of view of the person reading at it. If your writers want lower stakes than an open room, Recitation contests run through schools and ask for a poem from a published anthology instead of one of their own.