Dayton Poetry Slam says goodbye to Yellow Cab, announces new venue

Dayton Poetry Slam (DPS), which has long been held at Yellow Cab Tavern, has chosen its new venue once its current home shuts its doors.

It will shift from a bi-weekly schedule to a monthly slam at Black Box Theater on Third Street starting Oct. 18.

All of the organizers–Link Schreiber, Johnathan Galienne, Ayesha Alexander and Morgan McGee–are navigating the emotional transition together, though they came to the slam in different ways.

**Dayton Poetry Slam co-hosts Morgan McGee, Johnathan Galienne, Link Schreiber and Ayesha Alexander.** HANNAH KICHLINE

Schreiber has hosted DPS since 2003, far longer than he expected to be involved, after attending a few shows and then being elected the new organizer by attendees.

“My thought was, ‘All right, I’ll run with this for a couple of years, and then someone will take it over,’” he said. “And last month was my 23rd year doing it.”

Galienne began as co-host in 2016 after first experiencing a poetry slam in Denver, CO. He came back to Dayton and started attending shows while also exploring the world of stand-up comedy.

He kept gravitating to poetry slams because the culture was much more supportive than that of comedy circles.

**More than 40 people signed up to read poetry at the final Yellow Cab slam on Sept. 20.** HANNAH KICHLINE

“When people hear things that they like in the slam community, they let you know they like it,” he said. “They tell you that they appreciate what you did, they tell you that this thing that you wrote moved them in this way. And in the world of stand-up, when people hear a joke they like, they steal it from you and hope you never find out about it.”

Alexander and McGee both started attending regularly in 2019, supporting other poets and gaining confidence to share their original work until they became staples of the slam. When Yolanda “Quiet Storm” Gates left the slam, she asked the two to take over as co-hosts.

Alexander said that after they and McGee witnessed the Oregon District shooting in August 2019, Yellow Cab was one of the first public places they felt safe again.

“So it was just a no-brainer after that,” Alexander said. “The way that we sort of collaborate on support and creating this beautiful community, it’s hard to want to step away from that.”

McGee agreed, saying LadyFest, a popular music festival at Yellow Cab, was the first event she was able to attend after the shooting.

To lose this “safe space” now, both co-hosts said, feels like they are losing a friend.

“I’ve never known Dayton Poetry Slam to not be at Yellow Cab Tavern,” said McGee. “So it’s a big game-changer and I’m definitely mourning, you know, I’m grieving the loss.”

**Audience members at DPS’ final show at Yellow Cab.** HANNAH KICHLINE

DPS was hosted at eight different venues before migrating to Yellow Cab, which Schreiber called an act of “literal desperation” at the time.

“We had a show that night at Canal Public House,” he said. “We had five hours’ notice that they were no longer in business, and then we moved over to Yellow Cab… and then it just became home.”

The slam has now been at Yellow Cab just shy of 11 years, and its connection to the venue runs deep.

“Yellow Cab was the place where I went from watching people do cool things in the community, to doing cool things in the community and collaborating with people to do cool things… And that vibe didn’t exist on that level prior to Yellow Cab,” said Galienne.

He said the space was a clean slate where people could experiment and build, literally and figuratively, the environment that they wanted. One of the owners of the building even rented their home to him and his partner after a house fire in 2023.

**Johnathan Galienne at DPS’ final show at Yellow Cab.** HANNAH KICHLINE

Over the years, Schreiber has witnessed the slam’s evolution firsthand and said the community has endured together in the face of obstacles. This included moving DPS to Discord during the pandemic, still managing to have regular slams and featured poets.

Each organizer said they hope to remain part of DPS for years to come, and are looking forward to shaping its next chapter while honoring the past.

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Alexander. “I’m in it for the long haul. I think at this point, they’ve got to drag me out.”

McGee said a monthly schedule might even afford more freedom to travel for shows and try out different venues.

“No matter what happens, if we have to gather in somebody’s backyard, we’ll figure it out and make it happen,” she said. “I think one thing you can say about all of us is we’re scrappy and we’re here for each other, so we’ll figure it out.”

Hannah Kichline, executive editor

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