Our 3rd Tuesday Workshop and Open Mic features GuloGulo board member Ben Irwin.
About Ben
Ben Irwin (he/him) uses both written and spoken word to process the complexities of politics, masculinity, and parenthood, moving away from rigid traditional expectations toward a more vulnerable understanding of the world. A proud member of GuloGulo and the Northern Colorado Chapter of the Columbine Poets, he has won local poetry slams in Fort Collins and Des Moines, Iowa. Ben is grateful for friends and family whose support makes this creative journey possible.
Ben sometimes posts content at sublimedevolution.com and instagram.com/sublimedevolution.
Q&A with Ben
GuloGulo: Why do you write poetry?
Ben: Poetry is how I make sense of things that preoccupy me or that I have difficulty processing. The 2024 election cracked something open for me, and returning to writing became the way I could compartmentalize fear and frustration about what was happening to our culture politically and to me as a parent. There is compression of the poetry that forces clarity. I write looking for what I once described as beauty in imperfection and hope in despair, which sounds abstract until you are trying to explain the state of the country to your kids.
GuloGulo: Who has influenced your writing?
Ben: On the page, I keep returning to Ross Gay, Camille Dungy, and Wendell Berry. What draws me to all three is the way they hold nature, relationships, and politics in the same hand without any of those things feeling forced together. For performance, Andrea Gibson and Tongo Eisen-Martin have shaped how I think about performance poetry, even if my work falls well short of their examples. I also think often about a spoken word poet I met while living in Iowa, named C?ue, whose work reminded me that performance poetry can be intimate, interactive, and devastating at the same time.
GuloGulo: How has your writing changed since attending GuloGulo?
Ben: The Journey of the Poem process, particularly the second Tuesday critique, has made me a more honest writer. It is one thing to write alone and feel satisfied with something. It is another to bring it into a room of people who care about the work and are willing to tell you where it goes soft. Beyond the formal critique, the ongoing conversation about poetry in the GuloGulo community has made me more intentional. I notice things now I used to pass over. I think harder about individual word choices, about what a line break is actually doing. The Collective has made the practice feel like a practice.
GuloGulo: What are your goals for your poetry?
Ben: I am working toward a set of performance poems (including a few I plan to perform during the feature) that I can take outside of Fort Collins, to audiences who do not already know me. I also want to see some of my written work published, which is its own journey separate from performance. Above all, I want my work to resonate with people, to have it be part of what helps people understand aspects of their own lives, in part to offer value on the time and support my family and friends have given me to be able to do this work.
GuloGulo: What is the best meal you’ve ever had?
Ben: The most technically extraordinary meal I have had was at L’Archeste in Paris. It is a small restaurant, very quiet, and the kind of place where each course is a specific experience that adds up to an entertaining story. My favorite meal is buttermilk pancakes with eggs over easy on top. Something about the sweetness and the yolk together. I have never had a version of that meal that disappointed me.
About the Workshop
Ben hopes to explore the idea that during a performance a poem begins before the first word is spoken. The group will experiment with presence, stillness, and the threshold between ordinary behavior and the heightened space of the poem. Through writing prompts and performance exercises, the workshop will invite poets at every level to discover what the room is already doing before they open their mouths.
Join Us: Oct. 20 at Wolverine Farm
Please join us for the workshop, open mic, and a featured set by Ben Irwin! The evening is part of GuloGulo’s signature program, the Journey of the Poem, our weekly rotation designed to move a writer’s work from initial spark to public performance. The third Tuesday is our Open Mic night, and it’s one of the most alive evenings in Fort Collins poetry.
Here’s how the night will unfold:
4 pm – Ben will lead a workshop inspired by his work.
6 pm – Open Mic with Featured Middle Set by Ben – Hosted by Morgan Hurtado!
The open mic is free and open to all. Bring poems. Take the stage. Performances are limited to 5 minutes, and we ask that poets with sensitive content offer a brief content note before beginning.
Both events take place at Wolverine Farm Publick House
