If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. . .

Often times we find something we love; whether it is music, food, clothes, weekly outing with friends or even a poetry venue. We love these things so much that we incorporate these things into our daily living. Until something changes and that thing that you once loved sooooo much becomes mundane and trite.
This often happens here in Richmond, with events. There’s a poetry spot that’s really hot and happening. Or atleast it used to be. Perhaps it still is. Either way, it was like my home away from home. I’d go weekly and even would hold charity spoken word samples at work for donations to get in if I had to. I went on a poetic sabbatical (I was boo’d up for about 2 years) – they say when you’re happy you can’t write. … that’s neither here nor there right now but I'll surely expound on that later. I hadn’t been to the spot in a WHILE. So I went for my birthday. Everything hasn’t changed per se a few things have the set up, the rules, the cover – but what I came for what I enjoyed what I CLAIMED TO BE MINE had changed, the “love” vibe was NOT the same. There was a National Spoken Word artist that came out (I peeped him in the corner of the room when I was performing) – he didn’t even GET ON THE MIC. When a poet who performs and sells product as their livelihood doesn’t perform at an open mic, you know “HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM”. Maybe I’m speculating. But recently a friend of a friend went there and it was his first time going. He didn’t really have a lot of nice things to say about it. He said the crowd seemed clique-ish. That doesn’t surprise me, that’s Richmond – people usually run in non-inclusive crews; yes even poetry crews. (Its probably like that everywhere) There’s mad hateration out here in the sticks. But it’s all good.

However with all that said, my question today is, how do we keep things from going stale? How do we grow and keep what brought people to the venue in the first place fresh?
Is there an expiration date on Venues and if so has anyone figured it out for Richmond? and has anyone been keeping up with Def Poetry Jam? Have they ran out of poets?

But I’ve always heard, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it – can someone please bring back the Old Soul that fed me sufficiently?

~Shai (looking back to the past so I can move easily in the future)