Madtown Poetry Open Mic w/ Featured Reader Charles Payne

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, February 7, 2020
8:00 pm

The featured reader will be Charles Payne doing a "Tribute to Langston Hughes."

Charles Payne is a spoken word artist from one of Michigan's many rust belt cities suffering from lead poisoning. He has recently performed in the 3rd Annual Madison Moth Grandslam. His work explores personal narrative and social commentary. He has a TedX talk with his close friend and mentor Jeremiah Blue, MFA, MA, and a significant amount of performing experience throughout the Midwest and Southwest regions, in Poetry Slam, Story Slam, and now Comedy.

The open mic section of the event will begin after the featured reader.

Sign up starts at 7:30
Show starts at 8

Hosted by Kelli Miner

Open Mic