The Best Open-Mic Events in Toronto This Month: Where to Actually Go Right Now

Open-mic events in Toronto are having a bit of a moment. You can feel it on weeknights along College, or when a tiny black box theatre somehow fills with 40 people and one very nervous poet. This month alone, more than 160 people have already RSVP’d or clicked “interested” on lineups across the city—which, for shows built on total vulnerability and zero guarantees, is kind of wild.

What’s driving it? A lot of people are swapping Netflix for neighbourhood rooms where they can actually touch the mic themselves. You’ve got multilingual nights like "ВЕЧІР СУЧАСНОЇ ПОЕЗІЇ - ВІДКРИТИЙ МІКРОФОН" pulling in the Ukrainian community, and long-running, folk-meets-spoken-word staples like The Catweazle Club (this round with special guest Renann) giving big cozy-living-room energy. If you’re into poetry that leans more confessional than academic, there’s a whole crop of Poetry Open Mic nights right now where you can read something you wrote on the 505 streetcar and people will genuinely clap.

On the more curated side, Black Brilliance: Open Mic & Showcase has become one of those nights people actually plan around—part stage, part celebration, very much not a "wander in by accident" vibe. A Disability Privilege Presents: ICU OPEN MIC is the one to seek out if you care about accessibility and want to hear voices you don’t usually see centred on most lineups. And if you’re more about mixing your art with your appetite, Prosperity Through Partnership: Taste of the World leans into that community-dinner-meets-open-mic format, with the kind of crowd where someone will 100% compliment your tote bag.

Venue-wise, the city’s usual suspects are still doing the heavy lifting. Sweet Action Theatre is one of those blink-and-you-miss-it spaces that ends up living rent-free in your brain after a good night—small, intimate, and perfect for people who actually want to listen, not shout over a bar playlist. Spots like 1033 College St (yes, *that* stretch of College that somehow always has something happening) keep drawing in the West End crowd, while the more industrial-feeling address at 145 Evans Avenue, Suite 101 proves Etobicoke is quietly building its own open-mic culture. None of these places are fancy; they’re the kind of rooms where the best story of your week might come from a total stranger onstage.

If you’re choosing where to go this month: hit Black Brilliance or ICU OPEN MIC when you’re in the mood for something meaningful and community-forward, pick a Poetry Open Mic or Catweazle Club night when you want low-pressure, bring-a-friend vibes, and save Taste of the World for when you’re hungry *and* sentimental. However you slice it, this is what discovery looks like in Toronto right now—tiny stages, big feelings, and at least one person reading from their phone who somehow absolutely floors the room.