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Once a month on a seemingly ordinary Wednesday, you can find Kay Renee and other performers speaking right to your soul.
In Lucille’s Jazz Lounge inside TolHouse, Renee, co-host Bungalow, the band Soulful Collective and guest speakers recite poetry and play some music at Renee’s Poetry and SOUL Session.
“Myself, Bungalow and Soulful Collective, we bring a variety of soulful music, poetry and spoken word… all with the intention of showcasing our local artists as well as artists from afar, said Renee, host of the Poetry and SOUL Session. “So, each month we have two featured artists. One would be a musician. The other is typically a poet.”
Something Renee prides the session in is making sure to compensate all featured artists for their work. All ticket sales, $7 for advanced and $10 at the door, goes towards paying the artists.
“As a poet, we typically don’t get paid for what we do. We write and we hope that someone listens and likes it. I’ve always made it an event where we’re not just showcasing talent, but we’re making sure that artists feel appreciated for their talent,” Renee said.
Besides the paid featured artists the 21+ night also hosts an open-mic.
“It’s open to any artist who would like to bring poetry, spoken word or something soulful to the mic… We’ve had some guitarists, we had a saxophonist, things like that,” Renee said.
The session is hosted every third Wednesday of the month from 7 to 10pm, with the next one taking place on Oct. 21.
“[On Oct. 21] we have Laylah Faye, a local musician, Spencer Strain [a poet] out of Columbus and Lady Lovely a local poet,” Renee said.
Along with these featured artists, Renee and Soulful Collective, her house band for the past three years, will also be performing throughout the night.
“They [Soulful Collective] are with me all the time. Soulful Collective consists of Gary Black II, Cj Brown and Nate Maddox,” Renee said.
Poetry and SOUL Session has been around for about 15 years with Renee taking charge about 10 years ago. After showcasing the session at different venues, just recently they found a home at TolHouse. Due to TolHouse sponsoring the event, all TolHouse members get a ticket for them and a guest for free.
“We absolutely love TolHouse and the fact they sponsor this space for us each and every month. Words can’t even describe it because they don’t ask me for anything and I’ve paid a lot of money each month over the years to different places to be able to bring this to the community,” Renee said.
Along with supporting local artists and finding community, Renee also recommends coming just for the “vibe” Poetry and SOUL Session brings.
“It’s a way to reflect, a way to support the arts while also really it’s a vibe… It just is unique because we are combining a lot of different things and we’re really just feeding into the artistic expression of our community,” Renee said.
