At a Glance
- The Vortex hosts its annual MLK Day open mic on January 19, centering Black voices in Six Square
- New partner every.Word Poetry joins the 2025 lineup after rapid community growth since 2024
- Nationally recognized host Ebony Stewart returns despite moving away, citing Austin’s pull
- Why it matters: The event keeps Dr. King’s word-powered activism alive through live performance and pay-what-you-can access
Austin’s historically Black Six Square district will pulse with spoken word on January 19 as the Vortex revives its MLK Day open mic, now amplified by the city’s newest poetry collective, every.Word. The hybrid showcase keeps its core promise-Black artists step to the front of the line on a stage built for resistance-while welcoming fresh energy from a program that has packed Monday nights in the Butterfly Garden since launching last year.
Partnership Born from Packed Mic Nights
every.Word Poetry’s executive director Michael Hatcher and artistic director Jasmine Games call the collaboration happy accident. Their Monday open mics “grew really, really fast, and it’s a beautiful community,” Games says. Folding that momentum into the MLK tradition means “we’re getting the every.Word Poetry experience while celebrating MLK Day, while still getting Ebony Stewart.”
Host Who Can’t Quit Austin
Stewart’s ties to the Vortex stretch back to 2013. When she tried to leave Austin-her “poetic start”-the venue’s team refused to let her go. “Austin is one of those cities that won’t let you go,” she laughs. “So even if you leave, they’re like, ‘No, we’ll find something for you to do. We want you here. Don’t leave us.'”
She’s watched the showcase elevate national stars:
- Rudy Francisco, 2025 National Poetry Slam Champion
- Christopher Diaz, 2023 Bigfoot Regional Poetry Slam champ
Yet Stewart treasures the unknown voices most: “the community and people that you didn’t even know were writers or poets [who] show up and sign up onto the list.”
Why Words Still Matter
King’s legacy, Hatcher argues, lives in every syllable performers spit. “Martin Luther King, I think he had an understanding, like he was an eloquent speaker, but I think he had an understanding of the impact of words, the way that they can change laws, the way that they can change hearts,” he says. “Poets have to have that same understanding, especially performance poets, because we’re trying to alter, we’re trying to change. We’re trying to … evoke emotion.”
Stewart frames the open mic as covenant: “We are committed to freedom of speech. We are committed to truth telling and the collective liberation of what that looks like and how that feels in the moment, in real time.” After years of pandemic-era isolation, she adds, gathering in person “gives me the satisfaction and the reassurance of knowing that I’m not alone.”
Event Details
What: every.Word Poetry MLK Day Open Mic
When: Monday, January 19
Where: Vortex, Eloise Brooks Cullum Stage
Cost: Free to perform; pay-what-you-can to attend ($5 suggested)
Info: vortexrep.org
The show keeps the same door policy that has governed it since 1986: Black artists read first, audience members give what they can, and no one is turned away for lack of funds. News Of Austin originally published this listing in the January 16, 2026 issue.
