From left, Shelley Bruce, Micah Bournes, Keayva Mitchell and Antonio Cortez Appling share caffeine and laughs at Wrigley Coffee in Long Beach. The Black artists assembled at Wrigley Coffee — Bournes, Shelley Bruce, Antonio Cortez Appling and Keayva Mitchell —are pillars in Long Beach’s open-mic community. Appling founded the Definitive Soapbox, one of Long Beach’s longest-running open mics, and also …
Arjun Mohan has stories to tell — real life stories, of strangers in the city becoming best friends, of self-professed experts humbled by happy amateurs, of revelry and camaraderie. This is what Arjun calls a “post-pandemic shift”: while many participants earlier used to be people who moved to Chennai for work and were looking for new friends and activities, now …
