Poet Fenia G. Shares What To Expect at Spittoon's 10th Birthday

Abigail Weathers | May 28, 2025 2:30 pm | Add a comment | 40 reads

This Thursday (May 29) at 8pm, the Spittoon Literary Collective is celebrating its 10th birthday at Celestial with a variety of music, storytelling, fiction readings, poetry, improv, and open mic performances. The open mic section of the event will be hosted by multi-talented artist, singer and poet Fenia G, a fixture in the Beijing arts scene.

In preparation for the event, we chatted with Fenia to learn more about what the evening holds in store.

You're hosting the open mic portion of the evening. Tell us more!
I'm only hosting the second half of the Spittoon event. Anthony Tao is hosting the first half. The second half is going to be more poetry/open mic-focused, which is something I've been doing a lot recently in Beijing. It's actually steered from a bit of singing and more into me using my poetry, spoken word, voice and a bit of improv to deliver and perform. So, that's kind of where this came from.

How did the theme of "Beijing" come about?
The theme "Beijing" is from Anthony, but I can totally understand and agree with it because it's a big celebration for Spittoon, and Beijing is a big part of that.

What do you envision for the night? What should people expect?
Overall, for the portion I'm hosting, I'm envisioning people just being curious and open and willing to participate, because I know that it can be uncomfortable even just to read your poetry in front of someone, let alone a whole crowd of people or a whole room of people! The idea of performing not just alone but with musicians playing behind you might feel a bit daunting.

This event has some similarities to Spit-tunes (Spittoon's poetry and music collaboration series), but not quite. Different people, different vibe, and a broader audience with a higher ability of improvisation. The focus is on poetry and music, where all the performances are accompanied by music to, in a way, carry them.

How did you get involved with Spittoon's birthday event? What was it about the idea that appealed to you?
I initially got involved because I invited Anthony to the event "Music Meets Poetry" that I hosted. The band, Fiaba, is a great group of guys. I sang with them previously in another band called Spirit Rebellious, and so this is like their independent project, another band they've created just the three of them. The way they deliver music has some experimentation – that improv feeling – to it. Even the pieces that they have actually composed have that same feeling, and it inspired me to be comfortable enough to host this event with them.

And so, when I invited Anthony to the event, he also kind of felt the vibe of what we were doing. I had people come up and read their poetry. If they were reading, then we would give the band an emotion to use as a way to work with the poet. It doesn't require the poet to have any particular skill; they're just reading. But if they're feeling the music as they're reading, then that makes it even more impactful! think a part of that feeling is what attracted Anthony to it and led to him asking if I wanted to help host. I was also hosting during that time and really trying to get people to feel comfortable in the space and in a skill they might not have known they had.

What are you most looking forward to about the night?
Honestly, I'm looking forward to just hearing new voices and new pieces! I'm also looking forward to hearing old pieces – old voices – but in a new way. One thing about Fiaba that I was pleasantly surprised about when I did the previous event with them, was how well they were able to adapt to the mood of the person delivering their poem. I'd improv'ed with them before, so I knew how it was for me, but I didn't quite know how it would be for other people. Sometimes, with different art forms, they can fight against each other. But that's not what happened. [The poets and the band] were really careful and worked together really well to understand what the other was doing, even without [the band] having read any of the poetry before. It was a really cool and, I think, pretty beautiful experience, which I hope can play out again!

What do you hope people will get out of the open mic?
When I did the previous open mic, I wanted people to just feel like they could do it. I wanted it to feel accessible to them. I wanted to give examples of what they could do when they got on stage, and I wanted them to feel comfortable with the musicians and for the musicians to feel comfortable with them, so that they could create something really interesting and interactive together. And at that time, I think it really worked out well, so this time I'm hoping for something similar, but maybe even more so because of the theme of "Beijing." Getting to see what people are going to come with, having just this one focus that we all have our eyes on.

Well, this sounds super exciting, and we can't wait for the party! One last question: What does Spittoon mean to you?
For me personally, Spittoon actually means quite a lot because when I was younger, I would write poetry. It was for expressive reasons, but it was also because I saw my cousin write poetry, so I wanted to try it. And I saw characters on TV had their writing and their journals, so I wanted to be like them.

So, in a sense, poetry felt a bit like a juvenile type of thing until the pandemic happened and I started going to poetry events or just arts events that had poetry there and was reminded that poetry is very much an adult thing, too, where you can express your culture, your beliefs, your feelings, your insecurities. And coming into that space with Spittoon felt like it was a very accepting and inclusive space to try things that I had not tried before, especially in my personal poetry practice. The performance aspect is a part of my poetry process, and if I didn't have Spittoon, I don't know if I would have ever figured that out. So, I'm actually quite grateful and thankful that this community is here.

I am very honored that I was asked to participate in Spittoon's birthday this year and bring a part of my soul into the celebration. Because I genuinely don't know if I would have figured out the modes of expression and creativity and release and connection between modalities of art if it hadn't started with a space like Spittoon.

Fenia G. is a multi-creative "Jill-of-most-trades" who explores writing, dancing, collage art, stage performance, singing, and the intersection of art, expression, and healing. Formerly a visual arts teacher, she is now an arts-focused cultural consultant. While she has gained some knowledge, she's evolving – one word, one note, one step at a time. Her first self-published book, SPOUT: A Poetry Memoir (2023), delves into themes of identity and emotion. Her recent writing offers poetic observations of history and society.

Spittoon's 10th Birthday Celebration will be taking place on Thu, May 29 at Celestial from 8pm. Entry is free.

Celestial 空想酒吧
2/F, 74 Dongsi Beidajie, Dongcheng District
东城区东四北大街74号2层

About Spittoon

Spittoon is a Beijing-based arts collective that does events and programming with the goal of bringing together Chinese and foreign writers, artists, and literary enthusiasts. The Beijing collective hosts monthly fiction, poetry, storytelling and book club events along with fiction and poetry workshops. It has also organized a number of other literary events in the city, including an ongoing poetry-music collaboration called Spit-tunes, which sees a poet paired with a band or musician and then performing their original poems with musical accompaniment, and Spittoon U, a Beijing sub-group for university students.

The collective also publishes the Spittoon Literary Magazine, which is dedicated to bringing contemporary Chinese writing to an English-language audience. The magazine scouts a diverse range of emerging and established Chinese-language writers and translates their work into English to bring their talent to an international stage.

Spittoon has published a number of online features, which can be found on their website at https://spittooncollective.com. Search “Spittoon” on WeChat to follow their official account and stay up-to-date about the collective's activities.