"We have been blessed, awed, and horrified by you." Kirk Read and Tara Jepsen* have been running the K'vetsh queer-friendly open mic night for almost 15 years -- what else could they possibly say? It's nearly unfathomable that two people would step up to such a task in the first place, let alone keep at it for sooooo long, so don't even think about getting mad at them or feeling sad.
So we're not mad or sad. However, if we can get maudlin for a second, here's what we said about the event's 11th anniversary show: "Where is the sexy artists' enclave waiting to welcome you and inspire you to do greater things? Where's the fucking John Waters convention you thought San Francisco would be? It's at K'vetsh queer open mic, [where] the glamorous, the witty, and the weird shine through the dark night in exactly the way you pictured." And of the 12th anniversary, "Lo these many years, the duo remains easy on the eyes and challenging to the brain -- yet they will not say anything mean about you, even if you make an ass out of yourself. (Ask us how we know.)"
K'vetsh was incubator, church, fashion show, musicale (no medleys!), and more: Open mic night-runners are the volunteer creativity coaches who make San Francisco culture possible and we salute the hell out of these two. (And their co-cohosts Sash Sunday, Sara Seinberg, and Lynn Breedlove.) Like community-minded appreciators of other people's projects, they remind us in their death note about the many other like-minded open mics, reading series, and art spaces around town: RADAR Productions, Porchlight, Litquake, Writers with Drinks, Smack Dab, Queer Open Mic, and many others are going strong. And of course, "If you want more of these nights, then by all means, start one!"
Thank you, Kirk and Tara, for helping San Francisco art grow strong and strange and proud.
*Full disclosure: Jepsen is a frequent contributor to this fine publication. Example.
