THE PEOPLE'S POETRY, CHILEAN MINERS, MUSIC & MORE MUSIC

Feeling absolutely elated, watching the rescue of my country of birth's trapped miners: "Chi Chi Chi, Le Le Le, Los Mineros de Chile!!!" What a worldwide effort...what a humanitarian effort...what a testament to global cooperation, bringing in experts, machinery, and moreover, multi-national cooperation to help "Los 33." Just a wonderful story. So proud of our US teams that went to Chile, their stories now being covered in today's early Sunday morning news programs and in the news these last few days. I for one, couldn't stop watching CNN & their full coverage of the event. Even the cartoonists are joining in on the fun--now these are talented people, telling a whole story w/just a small amount of space through their imaginative drawings.

Even our Thursday night Open Mic Night session this week had musicians abuzz with talk about the miners' rescue. Thank you, Alex Wolfson, for honoring Chile in your facebook post about Open Mic Night. And thank you to so many of our great friends and patrons of The National Hotel, who shared in the tears, the anxiety, and the exhilirating feeling of watching the rescue of these 33 men this week. This is "the stuff" that inspires great writers--a tragedy, an uncertainty, hope, anxiety, and in the case of Chile, a truly blessed and happy ending.

And how appropriate that today, we hold another session of our monthly People's Poetry (our 3rd Sunday of the month Open Mic Poetry session), from 2 - 4 p.m. I just know that we will once again be in awe of those who take the mic, who are willing to share the words they've written to express memories, precious moments, lost opportunities, regrets, or true elations. I think about Skye Van Saun's poems, which express so much pain, and yet are intertwined with lessons of survival, of grabbing life and moving forward. Or how about John Smith's poems, that move us, immerse us in the images he conveys. And so many other wonderful writers. Here are just a few morsels of what you've seen if you've attended the People's Poetry, or what you might be able to catch if you have the time to come to The Rat, where we hold these very friendly, open, and intimate poetry readings:

Last month's session was hosted by Warren Cooper, and each month we have volunteers who self-identify as being able to host the afternoon program. Thank you to all of you involved with this wonderful event, and for sharing your own poems (or favorite authors' poems), as well as for giving one of today's greatest gifts to all of us: your time. Can't wait to see what's in store this afternoon!

If you'd like to share any of your poems with us, please post them as a comment here, or on our facebook fan page, share a link from any youtube clip you may have to put on The National Hotel youtube channel, or a link on our twitter page. Or just email me at marie@thenationalhotelnj.com.

Stay tuned for more news on our upcoming music schedule...today we have Kenny Cunningham upstairs in our Restaurant & Bar, from 5 - 7 p.m. But we've got quite a line-up of musicians that I'll post soon on our website.

Thanks again for choosing The National Hotel as a venue for the arts!!!