Musicians share a laugh at Little Skips café during an open mic hosted by The Potion Collective, a floating arts group that holds weekly music events in numerous locations. — Photos by Diego Cupolo

For such a thriving arts community, Bushwick’s certainly been lacking a few good, legitimate open mics. Or so it seemed…

It takes a little digging, but with the right sense of direction, spontaneous music lovers can find the shape-shifting, venue-hopping events put on by The Potion Collective, a subversive arts group that hosts weekly open mics. Born from the shuttering of AKA Potion Café, the Collective has continued to hold these events (among other things) in a handful of locations ranging from loft apartments to local recording studios – and has since grown bigger and stronger.

Monday night, the group held their first public open mic since the AKA Potion days at Little Skips café. The turn out was promising, the music was both soothing and rattling, and with hope, the floating arts group may find a new, easily accessible venue.

	Chilling out in Little Skips, waiting for the show to start. Click for slideshow.

But that’s not to say The Potion Collective has been unsuccessful in drawing crowds to their ever-changing locations. If anything, Alec Stephens III, managing director for the Collective, said the "floating aspect of it all" has brought more people to their events.

"After Potion closed, we weren’t sure what was going to happen, but then the last few shows at The G had a big turn out and they’ve kept growing ever since," Stephens said. "We just want to find some home bases so people know where to find us, but we’ll always want to venture out and keep exploring."

Jim Earl, development director for the Collective, said the group built its core members in AKA Potion. When the beloved McKibbin Street café closed down, they didn’t want to lose the open mic, so they moved to "The G," an event and artist living space upstairs in the McKibbin Lofts. Since then, the weekly events have branched out into other mythical-sounding DIY venues like "The Bright House" on Harrison Place, "The Castle" on Seigel and Bushwick Music Studios.

So, after all the venue hopping, Monday night at Little Skips brought the group back to their café roots. It was a trial night for the event and Little Skips co-owner Linda "Rainbow" Thach said she was excited by the turn out.

"I started this place wanting it to be an event space, but I haven’t had the time and energy to set something up – that’s why it was perfect when Jim approached me about bringing his show here," Thach said. "They did all the organizing and promotion and The Potion Collective has kind of a cult following so I was really happy to have them in the café."

The show began around 8:30 and the long roster of performers kept it going long into the night. Each act was given two songs or ten minutes on the microphone and the receptive audience (a full house, in fact) stayed through the last song. At the end of the night, Little Skips’ proprietors and Potion Collective members were talking about the possibilities of holding a show together once a month.

Aside from open mics, the Collective’s original focus is to bring artists and musicians together for the sake of creative collaboration, community building, and artistic development. In a few weeks, the group will host a performance and visual art event at the Loom during Bushwick Open Studios. And further down the road, they plan on holding a second McKibbin Street block party. There are also plans to join Project Figment on Governor’s Island.

"We’re basically trying to be connectors," said Bill Bartholomew, music director for the Collective. "This is a place for people to exchange ideas and make those ideas come true. It’s open to everyone. And it’s open to whatever people want to bring."

Interested in The Potion Collective’s future events? Keep up to date with them on their web site and through Facebook.