Every other Thursday, the back patio at David’s Coffeehouse in Hillcrest fills to bursting with women and men, gay and straight, some of whom are there to speak their minds and others to hear what they have to say. Siren’s slogan “It’s more than a mic. It’s a movement” sums it up: the bimonthly free event is dedicated to inspiring women via the expression of the creative arts, including spoken word, hip-hop, comedy, music and activism. Any woman can take the stage — all they have to do is drop their name in a bucket at the front door and they’ll get the opportunity to do or say whatever they feel before a rapt audience, as long as they keep it under five minutes.

“I started [Siren] in order to give women a place where they could inspire one another and support one another in their various forms of expression,” said Abby Schwartz, MC and host of Siren. “Women at Siren aren’t complacent. There is always something going on.”

Siren started eight months ago when Schwartz, a writer who moved to San Diego from New York City, realized that San Diego lacked regular venues for women writers. She had been doing some slam poetry and performance poetry around town, and was trying to find other female spoken word artists to put together a group of female slam poets. “I had a lot of luck finding other people who were interested in the topic, but not a lot of people who wanted to do a workshop or a writers’ group,” she said.

Around the same time that she was conceiving of ways to gather such a group, Lavender magazine hosted a successful open mic event that Schwartz recognized as the venue she had been looking for.

“There wasn’t a place that was steady, that was a regular event.” Schwartz said. “We wanted to provide that. We also wanted to provide an alternative for people who were under 21 who wanted a place to come and be with other women, especially queer women, and for kids who were confused or questioning, to have a place they could come and talk about whatever they wanted to talk about. We wanted to give an alternative to the bar scene, too. I was hearing from so many people, ‘I wouldn’t go to the bars so much if I had another alternative — another place I could go and be in a room full of women.’”

The first Siren took place on July 3, 2003. Schwartz handles the front-house operations while her girlfriend, Taylor, handles everything behind the scenes — coordinating the technical aspects, setting up the sound system, doing graphic design and making the fliers — and is also building a website for Siren.

“People see me on the mic and they see me out and about, so they congratulate me and say nice things to me about how wonderful Siren is,” said Schwartz. “But Taylor does just as much as I do, and feels just as passionately about it as I do.”

So does Taylor’s grandmother, who attends Siren regularly and loves it. “My grandmother attends a lot, actually,” Taylor said. “She’s really into it. I’m really lucky.”

Taylor is not fazed by this imbalance of public recognition for Siren. “After going to so many shows and doing a lot of stuff … people know me and people know what’s going on,” Taylor said. “[Abby] is wonderful and she always throws a thank-you to me; it’s not even about that, but it’s always nice.”

David’s lets Schwartz and Taylor use the patio for free, and The Center lends them their audio equipment, so overhead is low. A sign-up bucket is put out a half-hour before the event, which prospective performers throw their names into. Siren begins at 8:00 p.m. with the first round of open mic generally running from 8:00-9:00. A featured performer takes over from 9:00-9:30, followed by a small break and then a second round of open mic.

The vibe created on the back patio is mellow and warm rather than cramped and stuffy.

“It’s a small venue but its comfortable and intimate,” Schwartz said. “We actually toyed with the idea of moving Siren out of there for a little while because the numbers were just increasing so rapidly, but we didn’t want to.… A lot of people know one another and a lot of people come back week-to-week. We like that — it kind of feels like having a bunch of friends over in your living room.”

Taylor, an art student at the Art Institute of California, is also a musician who has performed at past Siren events.

“Being at Siren, so many people come up and say that Siren gives them a place where they can feel comfortable and can perform, and we hear that a lot. But it was true for me and Abby, too, because we’re both sort of performers,” she said. “Even for the two of us, it was a place to get our things going.”

Schwartz used to read her own work frequently when Siren first began but sticks to her position of MC and host these days, mainly because the list is long enough as it is.

“Every week there’s a memorable moment. I could gush about it forever,” she said. “Usually at open mics you have to sit through a few people and just kind of grin and bear it, but at Siren people are just so consistently strong; we’ve had some really accomplished people and some new people who’ve never been on the mic before do some really incredible work.”

“There is never a dull moment there,” Taylor agreed. “Everyone there is wonderful and attentive and respectful. You’d be surprised how many people get up there and really just pour their heart out to the people in the room, and that’s the part of it that’s really, truly amazing.”

Past highlights include performances by local musicians such as Lauren DeRose and a reading by one of Schwartz’s idols, avant-garde poet and novelist Eileen Myers. Another rewarding moment was when a group of younger women who had participated regularly in Siren last summer went off to college in the fall inspired to create an event similar to Siren on their respective college campuses. “It was really neat to hear them talk about the experiences they’d had at Siren,” Schwartz said.

She also recalled a memorable moment from last month. “This woman who had come to Siren a few times in the past came, and she got up onstage and said, ‘Okay, I’m really nervous, but I guess I’m coming out tonight.’ And she read this whole love poem/story about her experience of being in love with her best friend for years and finally coming out to her, then the two of them realizing they were in love. Her friend was with her at the open mic. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, people were crying, it was so beautifully written. She was so emotional onstage, and she kept stopping — there were all these dramatic pauses, because she wasn’t sure she could keep going. Everybody in the room totally related to it.”

Approximately 20-25 women perform at every Siren. “The space is very small and there is very hard ground, but people do all sorts of stuff out there. We’ve had drag performances, salsa dancing and experimental dance.”

It’s a great networking system, too. Schwartz and Taylor often use Siren to raise awareness and funds for various organizations such as dyke march and the Lesbian Health Clinic, and encourage political involvement — even registering voters. The upcoming Valentine’s Siren will benefit Vaginafest.

“It works better that we let people in the door for free, and when they come inside if they’re moved by what’s going on maybe they’ll donate to whatever cause we’re talking about that day,” Schwartz said. “We really try to make it an activist experience, in that we encourage people to get up there and talk about political issues and current events, feminism, what it’s like to be queer — we like to put that edge on it.”

The decision to host an open mic strictly for women met with a few critical comments, but not nearly as many as Schwartz expected. “A lot of people asked how I could close the mic and not open it to everyone if I claimed to be inclusive and fighting for LGBT visibility and queer visibility,” she said. “That was an issue for me for a while but … there wasn’t an outlet like Siren — a place where it was predominantly a women’s space. We get parents, we get boyfriends, siblings, friends and everybody, but the mic is reserved for women. I’ve gotten just wonderful support from a lot of men that come and participate in the audience.”

The next Siren will be Thursday, Feb. 12, at David’s Coffeehouse, 3766 Fifth Ave., from 8:00-11:00 p.m., with sign-ups beginning at 7:30 p.m. All proceeds will benefit Vaginafest. Call (619) 296-4173 for more information.