Where Vivid Narratives Live

Aliens are among us

In God we trust

Altered mind hallucinations

Intimate fascinations

Cunnilingus

The Rouletters were part of the entertainment lineup for the Mud Bug Boil.

In addition to the food, there were drink specials, featuring mimosas…

and bloody Marys!

Lila McCall recounted several personal experiences of “The Others.”

Daniel Davila, accompanied by Bob Mud, played his song about a Martian encounter, written during an altered mind.

Newbie, D Chang, read a sci-fi story about an alien encounter in a high tech world. Afterwards, he posed two trivia questions to give away two sci-fi CDs.

Josh Matimore shared a narrative about a mind-altered, music-filled, past life flash back.

Teresa Y. Roberson emoted the opening excerpt of chapter nine about her math fantasy characters from The Adventures of Infinity and Negativa.

Thom the World Poet, accompanied by a menagerie of musicians (Magic Jack ATX, Bob Mud, & Daniel Davila), sing-songed Out of This World spoken word. Afterwards, the open mic began:

Morghan

Magic Jack ATX

Trevor

Bob Mud

Daniel Davila w/Bob Mud

D Chang w/Bob Mud

Thanks to our wonderful Mud Bug audience!

My favorite dog who’s human parent took them out to celebrate the Mud Bug boil.

Join us May 11th for the “Stop Whining” roulette.

Your pitch is off key 

Your screeching is kill me

Life is what you make it 

Instead of having a fit 

Vent though poetry 

For this Mother’s Day, the Rouletters vented about their pet peeves and life lessons learned.

Magic Jack ATX aired his annoyance about other people’s love lives.

Sarah Kennon gave the student’s response to teachers who nag about sleeping in class.

Lila McCall called out one of her pet peeves…in so many words, about made up words.

Sagi Musume confronted the battles of feminine beauty and strength.

Daniel Davila held a mirror to all the whiners in his life, showing their ugly reflection.

Teresa Y. Roberson shared her mother’s anti-whining lesson, summed up in a single question: “Do you want me to give you something to cry about?”

Josh Matimore celebrated his 1st year anniversary with the roulette by writing a political satire skit about first world problems. He read the role of special agent Johnny Ba-Dass.

Thom the World Poet read the role of Congressman Bum McWrath.

Teresa Y. Roberson read the role of the bailiff, kicking off the skit. 

Thom the World Poet entertained the crowd with his medley about whining, joined by Magic Jack ATX on guitar and Daniel Davila on clarinet.

Thom gifted everyone with either a red or white candle in order to bring light to the world rather than curse the darkness.

Starting the open mic was David Young AKA Ben Franklin.

Sarah Kennon

Michael Kennon

Daniel Davila

Josh Matimore

Zaka

Louise

Nerissa

Join the Rouletters Sunday, June 8th for “Bucket List Fantasies.” Submission deadline is Wednesday, June 4th.

Live like there’s no tomorrow

You have no time to borrow

Happiness you must pursue

To yourself stay true

Experience as much as you can swallow

Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead and mummification, hosted this roulette. He told the audience that before Osiris usurped his important job, he’d escort the deceased to have their heart weighted against Ma’at’s ostrich feather while asking them a list of 42 questions. Based on the truthfulness of their answers, the deceased would either go to heaven or dwell in hell, with their heart eaten by the crocodile-headed goddess, Ammit.

The Rouletters were warned to be truthful about their bucket lists before the show began.

Birdman 313 daydreamed about what would happen if certain things came to fruition.

Magic Jack ATX shared his altruistic bucket list.

Allyson Whipple revealed her bucket list in five image- and message-rich short poems.

Lila McCall plotted out her bucket list that folded back on itself throughout time.

Teresa Y. Roberson announced her intentions to educate the masses through her written works and paintings now that she had resigned from teaching public school.

Josh Matimore recounted his sexual bucket list fantasy.

Thom the World Poet read his bucket list to the musical improvisation of Magic Jack ATX and Daniel Davila.

During intermission, Anubis recommended the theme drink: French 75.

The Open Mic Artists

David Davila

Louise Richardson

Robin Barratt

Sangye O’Mara

Donna Dechen Birdwell

Mistyrose OK

Thom the World Poet & Daniel Davila

Birdman 313

Catherine Brandt

Drew De Los Santos

Josh Matimore

David Young AKA Ben Franklin

Ben T.

Allyson Whipple

Join us for the next roulette July 13th when the theme is “Courage.”

At times courage is bold and loud

Or it’s hidden within the crowd

When a crisis occurs

And another defers

The courageous makes us proud

For the Courage roulette, Sylvie was our show mascot–a first for us!

The show was hosted by Blaxploitation leading lady, Foxy Brown.

This is what happens when the host gives her camera to an audience member. Although he was a poet, he didn’t want to get up on stage. Jokes on this guy now…he’s on the blog!

For our second anniversary, we had a record number of featured artists at 11, 3 of whom were first-timers. Thom the World Poet gifted everyone shades, which explains why we look oh-so-cool in our group shot.

Magic Jack ATX challenged the childhood myth of stepping on the cracks that breaks his mama’s back.

El Guapo used vivid imagery about the courage to love another.

Birdman 313 showed the courage it took to maintain inner peace.

Louise Richardson recounted the life and bravery of red man, her father.

Lila McCall revealed the strength while supporting someone ill.

Carondelet Dember, for her first time speaking publicly, courageously shared her repressed memories of childhood.

Courtney Jones spoke of how strong women with challenging backgrounds transitioned into butterflies.

Sangye O’Mara, dressed in military fatigues, detailed a moving narrative about love and courage of a married couple in the armed forces immersed in the horrors of war.

Daniel Davila divulged a quixotic battle fought for his dream girl.

Teresa Y. Roberson articulated how a privileged jerk would not successfully push a strong woman aside.

Thom the World Poet, accompanied by Magic Jack ATX, graced his courageous medley on the stage.

David Young AKA Ben Franklin started the open mic.

Sangye O’Mara

Dianna Simmons

Birdman 313

Courtney Jones

Louise Richardson

Magic Jack ATX & Sylvie

Thom the World Poet

Battling the latest conflict

Pulling out the newest trick

Come what may

Keep evil at bay

Triumphing is slick

The Rouletters originally thought they could take the group shot with the kayak in the picture, but the photography pros said there was too much sunlight in the background.

We then took a “classic” group shot by in front of the bar, proving once again we have superb survival adaptability!

The host drew her costume inspiration from Rambo, Peace Corps and her father’s dog tag.

Birdman’s survival story started with having to rent a car to get to the roulette. Then, he told his challenge with love, which began during his childhood.

Sangye O’Mara shared the makings of a true survivor, being thankful to be alive and sane.

Lila McCall divulged the big secret about survival–we don’t survive! Yet when we live life to the fullest, we don’t care about death.

Laurie Loew demonstrated her survival skills when she nearly lost everything, but transformed her life to be a successful social entrepreneur who gives back to the community.

Allyson Whipple created a poetry documentary, in five parts, about her best friend’s battle with cancer.

Thom the World Poet read the titles of each of Allyson’s poems from the audience.

Josh Matimore spun a tale about surviving the seasons of a fatal attraction.

Daniel Davila performed a one-man skit that captured his sister’s survival story through the lens of humor.

Teresa Y. Roberson read an edited excerpt from her Peace Corps experience, adjusting to life in Tanzania within the first two weeks.

Thom the World Poet, accompanied by Daniel Davila on clarinet, performed an improvisation about survival.

During intermission, rouletter Jack, looking very literary, smoked a cigar.

Thom the World Poet & Daniel Davila started the open mic.

Bernette

Zaka

Donna Dechen Birdwell

Ben

Erin

Birdman 313

Sangye O’Mara

Daniel Davila

Jaime Torres

Josh Matimore

Allyson Whipple

Carondelet Dember

From the bottom of our hearts,

we thank our audience, who came out in record numbers, to hear us spin our survival stories!

The host challenges everyone to think, write and share “Visionary Ideas” for the September 14th roulette!

Can you see what I see

Or is it just me

My active imagination

A preoccupation

Challenge what can be

This roulette was like Ted Talks meets poetry!

The hostess was a global leader from the future: female, brown-skinned and English speaker (majority of the world is female, people of color and speak English as their 1st, 2nd or 3rd language).

Milton Villeda, multi-instrumentalist and engineer, gave a demonstration of his latest invention, The M!ltone, which controlled various aspects of different musical instruments and lighting with a wave of the hand.

Joe Slawter brought awareness and activism about the sex trafficking of women, acknowledging that the average man’s demand is the main problem.

Scott Lipton talked about how EdTech Action addressed the broken educational system.

Magic Jack ATX, who worked on the railroads for 35 years, informed the crowd that Austin is way behind other cities in public transportation and needs rail options.

Sarah Kennon’s rant proved that most teenagers do not live the shallow life as portrayed by the media.

Donna Dechen Birdwell read the opening chapter of her futuristic fiction, The Way of the Serpent.

Lila McCall shared a poem about the gift of special vision.

Josh Matimore gave a retro look of a visionary gangster who used to work for Al Capone.

Teresa Y. Roberson stated her list of 10 future global demands, starting with 51% of all leadership roles being held by women.

Thom the World Poet waxed optimism when other people plan for the future since they’re confident there will be a future!

Louise Richardson started the open mic.

Jon Van Lowe

Sangye O’Mara

Kevin Velasco

Michelle

Michael Kennon

Josh Matimore

Thom the World PoetSarah Kennon

Thom the World Poet

We thank our audience for staying an hour later than usual for this visionary show!

Next roulette will be Sunday, October 12th with the theme “Cocktail Napkin Stories.”

Find temporary relief

By suspending your belief

The tales grow longer

When the alcohol’s stronger

The storyteller’s a thief

The Rouletters took advantage of the wonderful ambient temperature for the traditional group photo.

In addition, they promoted poetry even more by holding poems in their hands.

The host, dressed as a cocktail waitress, carried pens, blank napkins, a woven basket and a cornucopia. For this month, everyone present had an opportunity to be a poet–a cocktail napkin poet, that is. Everyone wrote a title on a blank napkin and put it in the green basket. Then, they chose a different title from the green basket to develop into a poem. The poems went into the cornucopia.

Magic Jack ATX, who had previously stated that he’d never written a cocktail napkin tale, changed that status before the show! He spun a cautionary tale about drinking.

Birdman 313 read his pithy alcohol slogans.

Jaime Torres recited the most rambling cocktail napkin tale for a sober man.

Lila McCall recounted a spooky cowboy ghost story with a bar setting.

Daniel Davila, who told jokes using a Ronald Reagan accent, followed by his mother’s accent, settled on a good ol’ country boy accent when he told a tale that pulled the audience’s leg.

Teresa Y. Roberson shared her latest sex research during midnight drinks. Topic: what turned men off from performing cunnilingus.

Thom with his cocktail napkin tales medley crew of Magic Jack ATX and Daniel Davila retold how the original cocktail napkin poet innocently stumbled upon our venue among other drinking-inspired tales.

After the intermission, the lovely rouletter assistants, Daniel, Jack and Thom, read the spontaneous cocktail napkin poems that were created during the show.

Donna Dechen Birdwell, Sangye O’Mara and David each read a poem, inspired by one of Birdwell’s poems.

Louise Richardson

Kirby Mason

Geovani Zambrana

Birdman 313

Zora Ellis

Kevin Velasco

Here are the 22 cocktail napkin pearls of wisdom poems:

Mama knows best

On that you can rest

Advice is free

Upon delivery

Wisdom lines her nest

For this roulette, the usual host went back to 1969 and brought back her 29-year old mother to host!

She recommended the hot toddy for any seasonal cold one may have been suffering during the show.

Then she told the audience about how she was living in Okinawa in 1969, where the humidity was so high, she chose to wear wigs rather than continue its battle with her natural hair.

Thom the World Poet brought a “Best in Show” award for the best open mic performance.

As usual, once they took the group picture, the show promptly started.

They took another group picture during intermission when all the rouletters had finally arrived.

Birdman 313 kicked off the show, reciting a list of Mom Wisdoms. We all liked #4: “A hard head makes for a soft ass.”

Magic Jack ATX added a personalized prequel to his mother’s favorite poem, which praises mothers and sons.

Donna Dechen Birdwell told the person drama and politics behind mothers and daughters.

Lila McCall wrote a book of Momisms for her straight-A daughter when she first left for college so she would know what to do while on her own and not have to move back home!

Teresa Y. Roberson shared her mother’s and grandmother’s home remedies for the most common ailments.

Thom the World Poet, accompanied by Magic Jack ATX, chanted some of the wisdoms his mother shared with him over the decades such as “Make sure you have more in-come than out go” and “You’re big enough and ugly enough to look after yourself!”

Before the intermission, the host invited audience members to get a medicinal hot toddy for themselves. Then, the open mic ensued with the following poets:

Sarah Kennon

Birdman 313

Donna Dechen Birdwell

Thom the World Poet accompanied by Magic Jack ATX

Magic Jack ATX accompanied by Thom the World Poet

Michael Kennon

Sarah Kennon won the open mic with her powerful poem, “Hi, my name is…”, which took a stand against the derogatory comments men have hurled her way.

The difference between us and them

Increasingly grows very slim

We both bleed

We both need

Cultural exchange is a gem

The Rouletters gathered together for the most spectacular and last time in 2014 for “International Flavor.”

Not only did they have a record number of artists (15), but they also had two artists, Cathrin Gordon and Donna Dechen Birdwell, who set up video technology before the show.

A pretty gutsy move for Gordon for her first time on the roulette!

Host, Teresa Y. Roberson, sported her international look with a Canadian tuque, Jordanian vest, Goodwill shirt and shorts, Peruvian socks, and discount hiking boots purchased in Denver.

Geovani Zambrana brought some international spice and romance to start the show.

Birdman 313 reminisced about the romantic side of Paris at night.

Special guest, Patricia Fiske, first read her own poem “Queenie” as an introduction to Sue Littleton’s poem about the Egyptian goddess, Isis.

Then Fiske brought her own regality, reading about her racy past in New York. 

Allyson Whipple captured the vivid moments from her international travels, especially Vienna.

Tina Posner unfolded a story of love, Madagascar and a stray puppy.

Birdwell brought her hi-tech TV and displayed a video about her travels around Nepal and showed people doing “Korwa.”

Roberson read about the 21-year international reaction to her locks.

David Fried read an excerpt from “Seamen on the Poop Deck,” which took place on his ship, The Raging Queen.

Roberson couldn’t resist taking a picture during intermission with another artist who finally outdid her own costume!

Sarah Kennon provided the historical and poignant international background of contemporary American events.

Stephanie Webb explored racial stereotypes within our ethnic melting pot in “Acting Race.”

Lila McCall gave us the timeline of her international travels.

Sam Patteson shared his food adventures and cultural mishaps in Japan.

Gordon ladled out some cultural soup along with thematic video images.

Magic Jack ATX shared his nostalgic memories of Dublin.

He then sang an original traveling song with DJ Cabrini-Green accompanying him on his Moroccan drum.

Michael Kennon fiddled an Irish and a Scottish song.

Then the Kennon siblings sang a translated Gaelic song, followed by another mostly in Gaelic.

Join the Austin Writers Roulette on January 11th for their “Redemption” show!

No need to fear                    Leave past transgressions behind

Just ‘cause it’s a new year     To yourself and others be kind

This is your clean slate         Only the present has potential

So why hesitate?                  For new activity experimental

The Austin Writers Roulette kicked off its 2015 season with “Redemption.”

Proving once again great creative minds think alike, both Thom the World Poet and Teresa Y. Roberson sported their winter white. He wanted to symbolize winter weather and she wanted to symbolize a holy person.

Roberson’s younger cousin, Veronica redeemed herself by visiting again since last year.

Poet, Cathrin Gordon, dressed in the opposite manner, as a little devil. Roberson couldn’t resist showing off her black boots as well.

Poet Jonathan Lowell redeemed himself by attending once again. His only other visit to the roulette occurred January 2014.

The various roads to redemption correspond to the individual.

Nonetheless, we can all appreciate a delicious mimosa, the theme drink! Note how poet Allyson Whipple has what she called a “Whipple Mimosa,” meaning all champagne and no OJ.

Birdman 313 talked about a song of redemption to the moon.

Whipple, who was raised Catholic and in the Midwest, proved there was redemption and humor in apologizing to everything and everyone.

Lowell had unwittingly submitted to this roulette when he shared his latest book of poetry with the organizer. Being a good sport, Lowell read three unusual redemption poems from the perspective of a whale, a birdcage and a snow globe. 

Lila McCall discovered it’s never too late to redeem one’s self, even on New Year’s Eve.

Cathrin Gordon found redemption, freedom and her voice from her childhood.

Daniel Davila, in a pseudo-North Carolinian accent, related the hate crime he survived and danced his way to redemption while remembering a “thin blue ribbon of sky.”

Teresa Y. Roberson advised everyone to issue “redemption coupons” in order to clear their conscious and move on.

Thom the World Poet gave an offstage delivery about redemption, accompanied by Davila and Ron Kewin.

The audience was invited to sign up for the open mic.

Ron Kewin, accompanied by Davila, started the open mic.

Allyson Whipple

At this point, audience member, Jesse, whispered to the organizer, “I don’t like thinking while I’m drinking!”

Birdman 313

Veronica Hunte

Daniel Davila, accompanied by Kerwin.

M. Alexis

Capoeira teacher, CW AKA “Rastinha,” invited the audience to stand up and do the basic capoeira move, the jinga.

Thom the World Poet, accompanied by Davila, ended the show by saying, “Welcome to yourself.”

Please join the Austin Writers Roulette Sunday, February 8th for “Bad Date Night.”