Kristen's Take: July 23, 2018 - It was a Monday and I had just gotten off work at Big Ten Network while the sun was still up. Since I was off from an early shift, I wasn't ready to go home just yet. I decided to check out the jerk chicken spot I had heard about on the North side. I was hoping I could find some decent wings and some mac n cheese when I arrived at Ire Jerk in Wrigleyville and that's exactly what I did. I went alone, something I've often done when I didn't feel like trying to find somebody to go with at the last minute. I walked in and grabbed a high seat near the bar area. I ordered a jerk wings dinner with yams, mac n cheese and a rum punch. As I was getting ready to dig in, I heard someone on a microphone getting ready to start a show. I didn't realize I was visiting on an open mic night. I thought well this will be fun so I switched my seat so I was facing the stage area to see the performances. The host's name was Shakes, he donned a high top fade giving a heavy 90s vibe with his esthetic and jokes. He was entertaining as he introduced himself to everyone in the audience. That night a nice mix of comedians, poets and vocalist performed. By then I was enjoying my wings and enjoying the show. While one comedian performed, he cracked a pretty good joke and as I began to chuckle, a gentleman at the bar got my attention when he turn around and said, "Haha, that was funny right". He was cute with kind bright eyes, and wearing a snapback that read "Cry Now Laugh Later", which I later learned was the name of his poetry book. "You look like a producer, searching for talent", he says and my response was "I might be". It was Chris, who also goes by Chi-Brown. Our conversation was so fluid and we instantly found out we had a few things in common. We were both wearing blue, we were both Virgos, we were both creatives, and our names are Chris and Kris. One artist, Milly Mango came up to us believing we were a couple already and asked us to buy a couple of her CDs. Chris says "why don't I get one and you get one and we can listen to them both together later". He had all the lines that day. lol There is one more thing I can't forget to add. Chris performed that night. At that time he was mainly a poet who was experimenting with adding comedy to his set. He performed some great poetry and made us all laugh with his jokes. I was very impressed and then there was this record scratch moment when Chris stopped in the middle of his set and pointed out two audience members in the front row for not laughing. He said something like "So you don't think none of my jokes are funny?!" and went on about how dry they were acting up there. I was ready to sneak up out of that restaurant before he ended his set cause of course I get along nicely with somebody a little cray cray. It took a while to get my bill so he did end up coming straight back to my table after his set. I laughed while asking him why he called them out like that. He said something funny about it and we exchanged numbers and social handles. I knew I met someone special that night but I had no idea just how special. One solo trip for chicken wings led to poetry, comedy and the beginning of our love story.