You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes

You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes – A GRIEF & GRATITUDE OPEN MIC @ The Lantern in Portland, OR!!!

You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes… is an open mic event, the communal offering for us to explore the conversation of death & dying, to embrace our losses & mortality, to grieve, bereave & honor what we’ve lost & love, in laughter & in tears… while all the while making room for the joy & gratitude at simply being ALIVE.

Hosted by Ned Buskirk
Featuring Nick Jaina*
at The Lantern – Portland
2828 SE Stephens St.

Doors at 7:30pm.
Show at 10:30pm.
All performances end at 10:30pm.
Seating is first come, first served.

The tickets tiers are direct ways of offering more support to YG2D, a 501(c)3 Non-profit bringing diverse communities creatively into the conversation of death & dying, inspiring life by unabashedly sourcing our shared mortality. Thank you for any additional help you can offer. And please email connect@yg2d.com if you need financial support to be a part of the evening.

We recommend you buy in advance to ensure being a part of the event.

You’re Going to Die: Poetry, Prose & Everything Goes…
is an open mic event, the communal offering for us to explore the conversation of death & dying, to embrace our losses & mortality, to grieve, bereave & honor those we’ve lost & love… while all the while making room for simply being ALIVE.

Sign-ups will be the night of & the list fills up quickly, so if you want to perform, you’d better get there early…

If you’re going to perform, keep it under 5 MINUTES. That’s right: 5 MINUTES. WE WILL TIME YOU. And we will hug you when we have to stop you [just to make it easier on you (or harder – depending on your propensity for intimacy)].

Poetry, prose, music, dancing, comedy, drama, happy, sad, & on & on & on… Remember: EVERYTHING GOES… so do whatever you want.

You don’t have to perform anything; the audience is as essential as the performers.

Please don’t perform anything with a setup that takes much more time than the time it takes for you to walk onstage. Honestly, plugging things in is endlessly boring. If you need to borrow an instrument, figure it out before you’re called to the stage.

IMPORTANT ::: DON’T TAKE YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY. Come and have fun. The end. Remember. Someday, we won’t exist and neither will the English language. If you choose to take yourself seriously, then take yourself so seriously that it’s stupid. Ridiculousness is encouraged.

You’re Going to Die. No. Really. You are.

*Nick Jaina is a musician and author originally from Sacramento who has lived in Portland, New York, and New Orleans. He was an Oregon Book Award finalist in 2015 for his memoir Get It While You Can, which is now in its third printing. His writing has appeared in Atlantic Monthly, McSweeney’s Quarterly and the journal Oregon Humanities. He has released many wonderful albums under his own name, including 2025’s The Monster Mash. He co-founded and was music director for a ballet company in New York City called Satellite that involved dancers from Juilliard and the New York City Ballet and performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, garnering praise from The New York Times. He has composed scores for feature films and documentaries, including All Sorts, Cement Suitcase, and Elemental: Reimagine Wildfire. – https://nickjaina.com/