Karen Suarez may serve danishes, brownies and muffin-top pastries during her day job, but on this Friday night, she is cooking up some catchy rhymes and hard-hitting poetry.

Suarez, 23, an East Harlem native and poet, is a server at Savoy Bakery on East 110th Street near Lexington Avenue. She and another poet, who also works at the bakery, approached their boss last summer about turning the bakery into a venue for an occasional open-mic night for the community.

“We didn’t think he would go for it,” Suarez said. “But he agreed and now it’s a success.”

The small bakery makes for an intimate setting.

People in East Harlem mingle during intermission at an open-mic night at the Savoy Bakery on Friday, November 19. Photo by Carlos Mayorga/Northattan

On a recent Friday night, around 30 people huddle on old wooden milk crates. The night starts off with an ice breaker called a “soul clap,” led by Lex D Emcee, a member of the hip-hop, funk and soul group Lifted Crew.

The audience is led into in a continuous clap while Lex begins a freestyle rap: “And you can clap if you like something that you hear. And if you don’t, then you can hit the rear. Cause Karen and I hosting. Look, we got the cheers.”

Suarez likes to mix it up. On this night, she begins with a poem she finished the night before. She recently joined a non-denominational church and had been questioning of the meaning of life.

“We always have questions like ‘where do we come from?’” Suarez said. “We all look alike, physically, right? But there’s something inside, that feels, and where does that come from? I had all those questions circling in my head.”

Later on, she recites a piece she wrote when she was 16 and often performs for the youth. It’s about hip-hop and how the music should be less demeaning and commercial, and instead address deeper issues: “Hip-hop’s not about piggy banks and picking on people ’cause they take their own position. Sit down and listen. Hip-hop is a community.”

In her third appearance, Suarez changes it up again and performs a rap paying homage to the Dominican Republic, her parents’ native country.

“It’s not all about hip-hop,” Suarez said of the open-mic nights. “It’s whatever you want. You can just go up and give a fragrance of something you went through today on the train. Let’s just get together and share the love.”

Karen Suarez and Katherine Bonilla both perform a poem at an open-mic night at the Savoy Bakery in East Harlem on Friday, November 19. Photo by Carlos Mayorga/Northattan

On this particular Friday, there is also singing. Daniel Bonilla, 22, spreads out a few sheets of his favorite rock songs and plays a few on his guitar. In a monologue, Lynnese Page plays a woman who had an affair with a man and angrily calls it off when she realizes he hadn’t kept his promises.

“I think it gave the audience something different, other than the guitar and singing,” said Page, 24, of East Harlem. “Just to spice it up a bit.”

The monologue is from the play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” It’s one of Page’s favorites and she often performs it on auditions.

“I had never done an open mic,” Page said. “For so long, this neighborhood hasn’t had some things.” This event “is bringing art and culture to the forefront.”

Daniel’s sister, Katherine Bonilla works alongside Suarez during the day at the bakery, but writes poetry and sings on the side. The 19-year-old Bonilla and her brother had been practicing a song together and decided to debut it for the event.

“Singing is beautiful,” Katherine Bonilla, who lives in the Bronx, said. “I think singing is emotion with a melody. I sing when I’m happy, I sing when I’m sad. I sing when I’m excited. I sing when I’m down. It’s another form of poetry.”

Suarez and Lex, the usual hosts of the event, along with Bonilla, all say they hope word about the open-mic night continues to spread throughout the community and that more people will start coming.

Suarez said the event is something good for the area that counters the negative perceptions arising because East Harlem has seen an increase in violence and shooting deaths this year.

It also gives young people a place to be on a Friday night – somewhere other than the streets.

“There’s a lot of love here, so they’re able to be heard and just share what they feel,” Suarez said. “To just be able to help kids to just reflect and to feel better about themselves, even in a tough world, like the one we live in.”

The open-mic nights are held about every other month. For information on the next event, call Savoy Bakery at (212) 828-8896.