Tongue & Groove

Open Mic | Second Sundays | Downtown Raleigh

Covers welcome. Originals encouraged!

Tongue & Groove is an open mic hosted and organized by Anna Weaver (that’s me), Sarah Egan Warren, and Andrew Warren, with help from a handful of friends and open mic enthusiasts.

Every second Sunday, local talent gathers at 228 Fayetteville Street (the magnificent VAE Gallery) to co-create a night of ephemeral art—including poetry, music, storytelling, and the occasional interpretive dance. Anything but comedy (not that you can’t be funny).

Door opens at 6:30. Show starts at 7:30. Main slots are 7 minutes (2 songs max, musicians).

How we roll

We provide a mic (of course), pick-up for instruments or tracks (incl dongles for most most devices, but BYO just in case), and a box drum. We encourage sing-alongs, and other artistic collaboration—spontaneous or planned.

No cover ever. Beer, soda, and soda water available. Donations gratefully accepted.

List is built by lottery — no standing in line! If you want to perform:

• Drop your name in the hat anytime after 6:30 PM.
• At 7:15 PM sharp, we draw names for 15 seven-minute slots.
• If you’re present for the drawing, you can choose your slot.
• If not, we will assume you’ve been waylaid by pirates and fill from the end of the list to give you plenty of time to chew through your bonds or parlay for freedom.
• Halfway through the show (~8:45PM), we draw 3 more names for our bonus 4-minute shim slots.
• At this point, the list is closed.

If you don’t make it on the list this month, come back next month! The entertainment, inspiration, and community are a sure thing, and we even provide the drinks.

Our show kicks off on time, every time. Performers, the countdown clock starts when you address the audience, so if you rehearse with a stopwatch (highly recommend), include your intro.

We believe open mic can save the world.

Sharing the open mic love on Spotify & Apple Music

A few of the folks who have graced the red rug (aka our stage) are on streaming platforms. To make it easy to find them, we curate playlists on a couple platforms. Check it out! (It’s mostly musicians, but that is NOT because we love poets and storytellers any less!)

Come to listen, perform, and create

Each month, we close the show with a reading of what we call The Dovetail—a poem collectively written by the performers and audience alike, one line at a time, and read by the Voice of the Dovetail, Andrew Warren.

Find us, follow us, and get handy email reminders 

Want a handy email reminder and a heads-up on any cool stuff we’re planning? Fill out the short form below to join our mailing list. We send exactly one email a week before the show.

Prefer to self-serve? All our events are posted on MeetUp in the Tongue & Groove Open Mic Group.