This Friday! Dallas Slam “Old vs. New” Slam
Dallas Poetry Slam Founder, Clebo Rainey, will participate in the Dallas Slam warm up for their upcoming National competition:
Past Dallas Grand Slam Champions slated to perform include GNO, Twain, Nnamdi, Nastasha and 2008, 2009 Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and European World Cup Poetry Slam Champion, Joaquin Zihuatanejo.
The “Old vs New” Slam is part of the team’s preparations for the National Poetry Slam in St. Paul, Minnesota, representing the City of Dallas. The 2010 Dallas Poetry Slam team will test their mettle against wordsmiths of former teams.
Patrons will experience beatnik style poetry from Clebo Rainey, the celebrated founder of “Dallas Poetry Slam and Dallas’ first underground record store “Metamorphosis Records”, whose poetry was influenced by the likes of Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti who questioned mainstream politics and culture.
Hosted by HBO Def Poet and Dallas Poetry Slam organizer, Roderick “Rock Baby” Goudy.
Corey Marks and Farid Matuk
Sponsored by Ricardo Avila’s MEXTOPIA
WordSpace is proud to have this reading sponsored by one of our favorite neighborhood must-meet-up-regularly-at Eateries, Mextopia, with the freshest delicious Mexican food, gorgeous ambience and most welcoming owners and staff: Mextopia is located at 2104 Greenville. Join us there after the reading! Special Thanks to Ricardo Avila and his partner, Michelle Andrie.
Corey Marks teaches at the University of North Texas and serves, with Bruce Bond, as Poetry Editor of American Literary Review. He is winner the Natalie Ornish prize, Texas Institiute for Letters, the Bernard F. Conners Prize from The Paris Review. a National Poetry Series winner for his book, Renunciation and a National Endowment for the Arts recipient.
Farid Matuk is the author of Is it the King? (Effing, 2006). New poems are forthcoming in Typesetter, Barrelhouse, and The Boston Review, among others. His translations of Spanish language poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Bombay Gin and Translation Review. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Poetry Project Newsletter, Sentence, and Cross Cultural Poetics (XCP), among others.
Hosted by Karen X
Fluid Imagery
Fluid Imagery is a poet, orator, songstress, edifier, spoken word artist mother and realist. It is her belief that words can be used to heal, hurt, soothe, relate, edify and uplift. She uses the gifts that she has been blessed with to bring an awareness of issues that all people face. She believes that life and death lies in the power of the tongue and that you have to speak good things into existence. She also believes that if you dont know the past, it can haunt your present and distort your future. Her style of poetry blends song with prose to tell stories of injustice, love, pain, desires, and life. It has been branded transparent poetry as she often puts a face to the pain people go through but dare not mention. She writes snippets of her life in every piece that is penned. It is her desire to be a blessing to others through poetry, prose and psalms. Fluid Imagery… I speak……… therefore.. .I AM!!!.
Hosted by Rock Baby and Alexandra Marie
Chuck Taylor and Hedwig Gorski
Chuck Taylor’s two most recent books are poetry–Heterosexual: A Love Story (Panther Creek) and Li-Po Laughing at the Lonely Moon (Pecan Grove). Taylor has also published novels and collections of short stories. For the last twenty-one years he has taught at Texas A&M University, serving a term as Coordinator of Creative Writing. Before that he was a bit of a wanderer, and taught creative writing at the Universities of Texas at El Paso, Tyler, and Austin. He worked in the Texas Writers-in-the-Schools Programs in San Antonio, Victoria, and Beaumont. He also worked at Paperbacks Plus in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas, and ran a creative writing workshop out of the old Lakewood Paperbacks Plus. He has worked for environmentalist causes with Earth First! and the Sierra Club. As a writer he’s open to any subject if it inspires him, but he often writes about working people and about fatherhood. Currently he is working on a memoir about the time he lived in a tent along Barton Creek near Austin to avoid working jobs for pay. During that time he worked one day and lived on forty dollars a week. Since 1973, despite periods of poverty and instability, Taylor has operated Slough Press. On his press he published the first book by former Dallas writer Sheryl St. Germain, and Pat Littledog’s book set in Dallas, Afoot in a Field of Men, later republished by Atlantic Monthly. Currently one of his former students has a book on a New York Times Bestseller List.
Hedwig Gorski is an American poet, scholar, and artist who received awards for media works in poetry and drama. She coined the term “performance poetry” in early 1980 to describe her poems written only for oral performance and recorded performance poems with composed music. The best collected during live radio broadcasts were re-mastered and released on a CD Send in the Clown (2009). She published three books of poetry and released many audio collections including a collector’s edition chapbook with vinyl record titled Polish Gypsy with Ghost. Intoxication: Heathcliff on Powell Street (Slough Press) 2007, 2009, is a memoir/archive about her 1978 experimental verse theater in Austin. Her BFA degree from NSCAD, a world famous radical art school in Nova Scotia, is in painting. Her doctorate in creative writing is from University of Louisiana. She received a Louisiana Artist’s Fellowship (2002), and a Fulbright to lecture in Poland (2003). Some of her poems have been translated into Polish and published in Okolica. Excerpts from her 1978 neo-verse drama Booby, Mama! appear in Karawane (2009), and the transcript of a television interview with Robert Creeley is in JAST, a Turkish journal. She appeared at the Jozi Spoken Word Festival 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the U. S. State Dept. A podcast (2009) of audio for “Mexico Solo” is out on IndieFeed. A micro book titled Poetique (2010) features the performance poem text of audio featured on Send in the Clown.
Jolee Davis, Amy Weaver, Josh Lewis, Ichat: Tom Peters
Jolee Davis–Creator/Editor of Death List Five magazine (voice of the lunatic fringe). An art and literary magazine based in Dallas. Has hosted and been featured in numerous venues. She also has a rebellious hairdo. Her latest chapbook, “self righteous c**t”, is a love child of Iceberg Slim and Oprah.
Amy Weaver…Infamous in the Dallas poetry scene. 8 teams, 3 NPS final stages, and 2001 Dallas Slam Team champion in Seattle. Amy is currently working on a new book of poetry and her first novel, “Casket Girls” (historical fiction based on the mythology and violent denizens of New Orleans).
She has a fondness for bourbon and has been known to hump a few legs.
Josh Lewis is a designer/animator/illustrator/photographer/musician, and writer living in Los Angeles, former co-host of Bill’s Records Open Mic Readings in Dallas.
Thomas Peters is poet, owner and proprietor of Boulder’s legendary Beat Book Shop. He is host of the longest continuous Open Mic and Reading Series in Boulder, a special Friend of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and Naropa University graduate. Author of 100 missed train stations, Scene Svengali, open door to the arts, music and film community who knows no strangers.
Hosted by Karen X
LGB
LGB is a spokenword artist that was born and raised in New Orleans. He burst on the open mic scene in the year 2000 performing at one of New Orleans most historic open mic venues, Ebony Square. As other venues opened up in the New Olreans area such as True Brew Cafe, Rhythmn City and The Hard Rock Cafe, LGB routinely performed at different locations around the city. His hardcore gritty street style with a mixture of comedy and clever metaphors quickly made LGB a household name. He went on to win several talent shows and open mic competitions with in the same year.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003, he was a member of the first ever New Orleans National Slam Team which competed in Seattle, Minnesota, Memphis and Chicago. In 2003, he was ranked 34th in the Nation and helped the slam team rank in the top 10 at the National Poetry Slam. LGB a.k.a. Beezy also was given the nickname Ghetto Poet for his raw, hold no punches, street style poetry.
In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, he relocated to Dallas Tx. After getting situated in the Dallas area, he graced a few open mic spots before a two year lay off. Beezy then re-emerged on the open mic scene in the summer of 2008 performing at Sankofa’s Arts Cafe, Brooklyn’s Jazz Cafe and many other venues in the Dallas area. Since his return he has won several slams and talent competitions quietly making a name for his self in the DFW. LGB is currently working on his 4th poetry/spokenword cd after recently releasing his 3rd album titled Poetic Thoughts of LGB. He has shared the stage with many of poetry’s powerhouses such as Sunni Patterson and Talaam Acey just to name a few.
Hosted by Rock Baby and Alexandra Marie
Victory
Victory is a performance poet, writer, singer, artist, graphic designer, stupid romantic, mother, daughter, daydream believer, introvert with severe social anxiety (and yet possessed by a masochistic urge to make a spectacle of herself).
She has been performing poetry on stage and competing in poetry slams since 2001 and has been on several slam teams that have gone to compete in the National Poetry Slam, including the 2004 Dallas Slam Poetry team that took 3rd place nationally.
She currently is the editor, head writer, photographer and oversees layout for two north Texas community newspapers (names withheld to protect the innocent).
Victory is available to perform at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, Quinceañeras, funerals and office Christmas parties. Probably not the best choice for a wedding. These have been unlucky so far.
Fans, potential employers, former boyfriends, stalkers and other interested parties can contact her at coffeepup@gmail.com. She dares ya.
Hosted by Rock Baby and Alexandra Marie
Carlos Salas Giselle Ichat: Scott Pierce
Carlos Salas, poet/painter/ father/husband/friend/ co-proprietor of Oak Cliff’s best bookstore Cliff Notes Prolonged Media. He is also, co-host of monthly open mic reading held at Mighty Fine Arts Gallery, also located in Oak Cliff. Locally, Carlos has been involved in the humanities in one form or another from literature, art, film, theatre, and music. He is a seeker of all things, harmonious, believer of all things, impermanent, believer of all things, interdependent.
RockCityPoet,Giselle–For this native of St. Thomas Virgin Islands, words became the comfort and color of her life when she was too ill to even leave her home. She moved to Ft. Worth seeking healthcare for her son two years ago and performs her soul all over the metroplex.
Scott Pierce was born in 1975 and lives for the moment in Austin with his partner, the poet Cindy St. John. He is the author of TV Poems (BlazeVox 2004) and Some Bridges Migrate (Small Fires Press 2009). He edits the publications of Effing Press which include the Effing Chapbook Series, full-length poetry collections, and the lit/viz art journal effing magazine.
Hosted by Karen X
Mythcon 41: War in Heaven
3-day event: July 9-12, 2010
From the great epic poems of ancient Greece and ancient India to the Book of Revelation and the Poetic Edda; from John Milton and William Blake to J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams; from Philip Pullman to Neil Gaiman and beyond, conflict amongst and against the gods has been a perennial theme in mythology and mythopoeic literature.
Scholar Guest of Honor
Janet Croft is editor of Mythlore, one of the premier periodicals on the Inklings and fantasy literature. She has published many articles and three books on J.R.R. Tolkien, including War in the Works of Tolkien (2005).
Author Guest of Honor
Tim Powers is a science-fiction and fantasy author. He has received numerous awards and nominations for his works, including the World Fantasy Award for his novels Last Call (1992) and Declare (2000).
Web: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/41
Local support provided by the SMU CAPE Creative Writing program
Alex Lemon, Christopher Carmona, Scooter Smith, Ichat: Janaka Stucky
The WordSpace Reading Series at the Kessler X+ Art Gallery is held in partnership with The Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff. Originally built by Gene Autry, then destroyed by tornado, The Kessler has been beautifully resurrected as an arts/music complex. The new ambience maximizes our exciting presentations of both emerging and experienced writers, and mixes it up with our innovative use of web-cam-technology to broadcast live readings via Ichat/Skype, inter-connecting with writers from around the world. The events are held 2nd Wednesdays, as part of The Kessler’s Residency Nights of music. Begin the evening with Community Happy Hour, join us upstairs for the readings and check out their website to see who will be performing those nights!
Special Thanks to our friends –Owner, Edwin Cabiniss and Artistic Director, Jeffrey Liles.
Alex Lemon was born in Iowa, and lives in Ft. Worth, Texas. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Mosquito (Tin House Books) and Hallelujah Blackout (Milkweed Editions), and is the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His memoir, Happy, was published by Scribner in 2009.
Christopher Carmona hails from the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas. He is beat poet following in the tradition of beat poets like Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, and Raul Salinas. Much of his work works to redefine what it means to be ‘beat’ as a poet and scholar. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Texas A&M University. He has had poems published in the Writers’ Block and Beatlick Art & News. Currently he is working on his first book of poetry simply titled beat and is editing an anthology of Beat Texas writings for UT Press with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson.
Scooter Smith is the art director and webmaster of Moonlady News, web illustrator and animator, videographer including in many video festivals. He will be sharing his moving video honoring those who died senselessly during the events of 9-11–”Our Live Like Rain”.
Janaka Stucky is the founder and managing editor of Black Ocean, and publishes the magazine Handsome. He likes his whiskey neat and his music dirty. Since receiving his BFA from Emerson and an MFA in Poetry from Vermont College in 2003, he remains rooted in Boston—spending his life traveling, writing, and caring for the dead. Some of his poems appear or are forthcoming in: Denver Quarterly, North American Review, Redivider, and VOLT.
Hosted by Karen X
