Mind Over Mic: A Gemini Ink Storytelling Show & Open Mic
May 7 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm CDT
Open mic sign-up starts at 6 PM.
Thu, May 7, 2026, 6:30-8pm, in-person at Gemini Ink
1111 Navarro St. San Antonio, Texas 78205
Free & Open to the Public
About the Event
Join Gemini Ink and a collection of local storytellers as we share gripping stories of solitary struggles, tiny triumphs, and soothing self-care in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month 2026.
Our featured truth-tellers will include Jen Yáñez-Alaniz, Jonathan Fletcher, Joyous Windrider Jiménez, and Daniel Ramirez. These writers will deliver powerful personal stories in support of Mental Health Awareness Month’s mission to draw attention to the importance of mental health and wellbeing for all.
Following the featured reading, we will host a community open mic. Bring your poems, short stories, and thoughts to share (there will be a 5-minute limit for each reader). Open mic sign-up in person, starting at 6pm. Light refreshments will be served.
We will have a list of community mental health resources available.
Featured Readers
Jonathan Fletcher holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University School of the Arts. His work has been featured in numerous literary journals and magazines, and he has won or placed in various literary contests. A Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Microfiction nominee, he won Northwestern University Press’s Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize contest in 2023, for which he will have his debut chapbook, This is My Body, published in 2025. Currently, he serves as a Zoeglossia Fellow and lives in San Antonio, Texas.
Daniel Ramirez is a longtime educator and writer from San Antonio. He has published nature writing essays in Foliate Oak, Twisted Vine, and you are here journals and nature-based journalism with StateImpact Texas (KUT Austin) and Texas Public Radio. He also writes stories, puppet shows, and poetry; as a teaching artist, he’s taught in multiple genres. He believes that the quest to develop one’s inner creativity parallels the quest to encounter one’s deeper, truer self.
Jen Yáñez-Alaniz is a Chicana Cúelcahén Ndé scholar, poet, and community organizer whose work centers cultural preservation, land-based ceremony, and decolonial epistemologies. Her poetry can be found in There is So Much I Want to Tell You (Mouthfeel Press) and Somos Xicanas (Riot of Roses Publishing House), as well as in various anthologies and journals. She is the author of Surrogate Eater (Alabrava Press). Her current manuscript, Pain Theory: Sweetness Ferments into a Beast, reflects poetically and critically on healing, endurance, and living beyond multiple autoimmune conditions.
Joyous Windrider Jiménez is an educator, artist, and trauma-informed somatic coach. A storyteller at heart, she blends performance and visual elements into stories that articulate her own journey of self-growth and emotional literacy.
