First open mic at Blue Ink Bookstore and Café opens the door to creative possibilities

Local author Cat Crouch reads a poem from her book Sky House. (Emily Stewart photo)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Musical and poetic talents were shared inside the blue walls of a new independent bookstore in Woodstock as the crowd attentively listened and enjoyed sandwiches, beverages, and baked goods.

Blue Ink Bookstore and Café held its first-ever Poetry Night and Open Mic on April 23 to an engaged audience listening to poetry, original music, and cover songs, some on guitar and some on flute.

"It was really awesome to see a wide variety of different performances, musical and reading, so all in all I think it went pretty well,” said Mitch Langdon, open mic host and one of the performers.

Shahla Bahadori, owner of the Blue Ink Bookstore and Café, was thrilled to see the positive response from the community that filled the space during the event, especially since the business has only been part of Downtown Woodstock for a short time.

"As a new business, I understand it takes time for the local community to know us, to know the vision, what we are going to do and trust us,” she said. “After just one and a half months, it's lovely seeing this support from the local community in Woodstock, and I'm really grateful for that."

Langdon said most of the people who used to attend the open mics held at the downtown Early Bird Coffee location came to the event at Blue Ink Bookstore and Café.

"We went in with zero expectations but Shahla was really open to the idea and we haven't really had an open mic on this side of town for a little while,” he said.

Bahadori is hoping for more events like open mics in the future. Part of her vision is to have a creative space that goes beyond a brick-and-mortar retail store.

“What I want is somewhere where people can have their creativity, they can have some events, workshops, so we are open to any new ideas. This event actually showed us proof that we can do something like this to show in the future and new bright ideas,” said Bahadori.

The event was held just two days before Canadian Independent Bookstore Day, which took place on April 25.