Past Events
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.
Southwest Shootout Regional Poetry Slam
The Southwest Shootout is a regional poetry competition held every year in a different city in the Southwestern United States, ranging from Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Teams of poets compete against each other in a 4 round preliminary bout on June 11th. The top four teams move on to the Final Poetry Slam on the 12th. Over the past 7 years, these teams have consistently placed in the finals at the National Poetry Slam. A number of Russell Simmon’s HBO “Def Poetry Jam” poets will be participating in this competition. This will be the second time in three years for Dallas to host this event. Price: $10 all inclusive ticket for both nights. $7 advanced purchase final ticket for Saturday only, $10 at the door on Final Night.
Andrew Osborne and Peter Gurnis
Andrew Osborn teaches literature and creative writing as a professor of English at the University of Dallas. His chapbook, Plato’s Aviary, was selected by Robert Hass as co-winner of the 2002 Aldrich Poetry Competition. His poetry has appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Bat City Review, the Blanton Poetry Project, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Notre Dame Review, and Southwest Review, where it received a 2008 Morton Marr Poetry Prize.
Peter Gurnis is the author of the Body of Liberties from Burning Deck press (1987). Over the years he has published poems in 26, Beloit Poetry Journal, Colorado Review, First Intensity, and Ploughshares. In 2004-5, he received a year-long fellowship from the Howard Foundation and completed a book-length poem Berlin and Eden.
Militant X. Amerikkkan
Militant X. Amerikkkan is a lyricist, performance poet, writer, musician, and activist based in Dallas, TX. He also is one of the organizers and hosts of the Dallas Poetry Slam and has coached several Dallas poetry slam teams that compete at the National Poetry Slam annually. For over 25 years Militant has performed his poetry at poetry slams, open mics, arts festivals, and at private gatherings. In 2002, he authored his first book of poetry, No War, No Peace. His work has been featured in two anthologies devoted to arts, literature, poetry and culture, Taj Mahal Review’s Cyberwit’s International Journal and Voyages of World Poetry. Additionally, he was featured on satellite radio, in the Dallas Observer and his work can be found in many online sites and independent papers. Militant has recorded two full length CDs of poetry, Rogue State of Mind of an Original Terrorist and Amerikkka Can Do Better.
Collaborative Works: g&h (iChat Boulder) and Desmene Statum&Chris Zimmerly
Caesar Hernandes & Desmene Statum, Chris Zimmerly and IChat with G & H from Denver
Desmene Statum, a poet gypsy from Alabama, has been in Dallas, Texas for 10 years. She has published two chapbooks, Coagulation and Two Fisted Whiskey Love Songs and featured in DL5, Voice of the Lunatic Fringe, Mad Swirl VI The Blue Issue. She has been influenced by Octavio Paz, Allen Ginsberg, Rumi, and Rilke. Dez takes the ride of life at full speed hoping to find the poem that saves her soul. She has performed in galleries, bars, and festivals all over DFW. Dez enjoys doing freestyle poems with her good friends and never met a cowboy she didn’t like.
Chris Zimmerly is a local poet, former open mic host, songwriter and musician. “Hootenanny Now!”
G and H are Texas natives, veteran travelers, live-word poets, and members of the sub-cult electro-pop band Sci-Fi Uterus. They were active performance poets in the pre-Slam Deep Ellum scene and collaborated with a community of multi-media artists in the late eighties’ Cowtown underground. For the last 20 years, G and H have found beat bucolic bliss in the mythical farming community of Gowanda, Colorado—home of the avant-garde juggernaut Grant R Productions.
Hosted by Laney Yarber
Suggested donation: $5
Linda Jones
Linda Jones is an award-winning journalist who has written extensively about the lifestyle and culture of people of African descent in the US and abroad. She is author of “Nappyisms: Affirmations for Nappy-Headed People and Wannabes!” Linda is also owner of ManeLock Communications, a writing service and is producer of Finding Your Inner Scribe, writing workshops and literacy projects.
Reception in partnership with University of Texas at Dallas for Stanley Fish
New York Times blogger Stanley Fish is the Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has also taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. He is the author of 10 books. His new book on higher education, Save the World On Your Own Time, has just been published.
Flesh Eating Poetics/Get Real!
Matt Henriksen is the author of the chapbooks Is Holy (horse less press, 2006) and Another Word (DoubleCross Press). Some recent poems appear in Realpoetik, Raleigh Quarterly, Front Porch, The Cultural Society, and Handsome Journal. He co-edits Typo, an online poetry journal, and publishes Cannibal Books, a book arts poetry press. From 2005 to 2008 he curated The Burning Chair Readings in Brooklyn and now hosts irregular readings throughout the country. A special feature of Frank Stanford’s unpublished poems and fiction, selected by Henriksen, will appear in the upcoming issue of Fulcrum. He lives and teaches in the Ozark Mountains.
Gayle Bell is the witty and observant voice of the bus stop, political movements, the bi-sexual, the African American woman you’ll never convince that there’s no conspiracy, but who loves you anyway. She has several chapbooks of poetry and currently teaches an ongoing workshop in erotic poetics.
Hosted by Laney Yarber
Suggested donation: $5
Candy
Candy is a poet that has a huge presence on stage with her voice and choice of words that are righteous to the hearts and minds of the audience and raunchy and raw when necessary. She is no stranger to poetry and performing on stage for she has been writing and performing for ten years and she has represented the city of Dallas on the national level in poetry competitions for three years. With a candid, sassy yet sexy performance style, Candy is known for lighting up venues with the air of eroticism and leaving audiences cold with appealing truths about the error of one’s ways and what is needed to make a difference.
London Calling…East Dallas!
Joey Cloudy & Opalina Herebia-Salas & IChat with Ali Abdolrezaei from London
Joey Cloudy co-edits the poetry magazine Death List Five (Voice of the Lunatic Fringe) with his wife, poet Jolee Davis Cloudy. He is the incendiary Anti-Poet, constantly changing hats according to the needs of survival. He has been described as the Prince of Darkness and champion of the best in New Underground artists. Joey is the author of HOWL, A Hundred and Eight Poems for Allen, TRAMP, and On Women.
Opalina Herebia-Salas “does nothing but dream to drink and smoke the holy spoken word and bite away all broken chords.” She is co-founder of DFW Open Mics and has been a guest on Mandrake Society Radio in 2007. Rattling Keys and Broken Chords, (Propinquity Press) is her most recent chapbook. Opalina is married to poet and artist Carlos Salas, with whom she owns the bookstore, Cliff Notes.
Ali Abdolrezaei was born in northern Iran in 1969. He is also trained as a mechanical engineer. In 2003 he had to flee Iran due to the serious scrutiny and censorship of his work and has lived in London ever since. He has published 12 books of poetry, including From Riskdom, Shinema, So Sermon of Society, Improvisation, This dear cat, Paris in Renault, You Name this Book. Nearly all well known poets and critics of Persian poetry have written about Abdolrezaei’s poems.
iChat Readings: Interconnecting with writers around the world:
Joey Cloudy reads at Paperbacks Plus while Abol Froushan looks on–Live from London, March 13, 2010.
Video by Peter Orozco
Hosted by Laney Yarber
Suggested donation: $5
Jeffrey Davis & Linda Jones
Jeffrey Davis is author of the non-fiction book The Journey from the Center to the Page (Penguin 2004; updated ed., Monkfish 2008) and the poetry collection City Reservoir (Barnburner Press). He teaches in Western Connecticut State University’s MFA in Professional Writing Program, at the UNM Taos Writers’ Conference, and elsewhere. He also coaches best-selling authors and aspiring authors around the country. He lives in upstate New York and is at work on a collection of short stories and a non-fiction book that tracks wonder.
Linda Jones has used stories about hair in her writing as a device to explore lifestyle and cultural issues. She founded A Nappy Hair Affair in 1998 and made it an extension of her commitment as a writer to help dispel stereotypes and negative perceptions of people of color. With the help of her team of nappy proponents, Linda produced a short video documentary, which was part of the 2000 Dallas Video Festival. She also gathered artists together to produce the “Love & Nappiness,” spoken work and music CD and a stage production called “The Love and Nappiness Revue.” She also produced a member newsletter called the Nappy News and her Natually Speaking column became a monthly feature of the website Naturallycurly.com.
Avante! Shin Yu Pai and Jerry Kelley
Featuring: Shin Yu Pai, Jerry Kelley
Shin Yu Pai grew up in the Inland Empire of Southern California and has lived and worked in Boston, Madrid, Boulder, Chicago, Dallas, Taipei, and Seattle. Currently, she resides in San Marcos, TX, where she is Assistant Curator for Acquisitions for The Wittliff Collections, which specializes in Southwestern and Mexican photography, as well as literary archives related to the Southwest. She is the author of seven books of poetry, as well as being an oral historian, photographer, and editor. Recent titles include Haiku Not Bombs, Sightings: Selected Works, and Works on Paper. White Pine Press will publish Adamantine in 2011.
Jerry Kelley–Harvard in the Sixties, living in the “bush” of British Columbia in the 70’s, musician with arts-family legacy, long-time WordSpace Board Member and aesthetics advisor. His work is Elevated–at-the-13th Floor. He travels often and widely with his wife, poet Patty Turner.
Hosted by Laney Yarber
Suggested donation: $5
Sabrina Gilbert
Sabrina Gilbert is a very crafty writer and a skilled performer. Her work is bold and heartfelt and will leave even the most critical minds craving more.
She is sharing the stage at B&N with Michael Guinn.
Destiny Lane
Destiny Lane is a poet that writes from her soul. She connects words that resonate with thoughtfulness. Her work is spiced with sultry soliloquies that flow fluidly off her tongue while dripping with steaming hot passion leaving the imaginations of audiences moist and wanting more.
Mad Swirl Night
Featuring: Johnny Olson, MH Clay and Swirve
Mad Swirl –Johnny Olson is the editor-in-chief of Mad Swirl, and the host at Mad Swirl Open Mic night at Absinthe Lounge. When Johnny is not nurturing his love/lust-child, Mad Swirl or painting, he savors the time swirling around with his fellow mad ones. MH Clay is Mad Swirl’s new poetry editor and a huge advocate on all that is Mad Swirly. He’s a poet, writer, musician and general mad man. Swirve, aka Chris Curiel, Tamatha Curiel, and Gerard Bendicks, is a poetics, avant-garde person/instruments-sound-space group from Dallas.
Hosted by Laney Yarber
Suggested donation: $5
Tim Cloward and Dancing Tongue
An Intimate Evening with Dancing Tongue
Paperbacks Plus Series - Time: 8 p.m. Suggested donation: $5
Location: Paperbacks Plus
6115 La Vista, Dallas, Texas 75214
The multi-media performance poetry troupe Dancing Tongue, the creators of the recent Literary Cabaret series at the Undermain Theatre (with its cutting edge mixture of spoken word, music, performance, movement and video) will present a causal evening of entertainment in the intimate confines of the upstairs lounge of Paperbacks Plus. Join Tim Cloward, Lisa Huffaker, Fran Carris, Richard Allen & Kim Corbet for a thought-provoking experience that will once again demonstrate that literature is, indeed, a lively art.
John “Survivor” Blake
John “Survivor” Blake’s nickname is no idle moniker. He has truly survived hellish circumstances and gone on to make work that, in the words of Carlos Andres Gomez, pulls “the reader or listener into the heart of his raw, fragmented truth of unshakeable power. He understands the incredible responsibility of being an artist, as much as anyone I have ever known.”
Dallas Slams - Featured Reader
Location: Café Madrid - Bishop Arts, 408 N. Bishop Ave. Suit 108,
Dallas, Texas 75208
Photos: Farid Matuk at Members Only Salon
Photos: Dale Smith and Hoa Nguyen Reading
Northwood Literary Festival - 2009
Tuesday, October 20
Wordspace proudly co-sponsors this dynamic gathering of poets and fiction writers that takes place on the campus of Northwood University every fall. The event is held in Lambert Commons on Northwood’s 400 acre campus, located 25 minutes from downtown Dallas, just off Highway 67 south — the Joe Pool Lake exit.
Northwood University
1114 W FM 1382, Cedar Hill, TX 75104
FEATURED ARTISTS
Willard Spiegelman is the Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University and has been editor of the Southwest Review since 1984. His latest book, a collection of meditations on happiness, is Seven Pleasures (FSG). He lives in Dallas, Texas.
Rock Baby, a native of Hattiesburg, Miss., is a natural per- former beginning with his television debut presentation on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. His charismatic performances tap into the emotions of audiences. His honors and titles include Dallas Poetry Team Slam Master, Grand Slam Spoken Word City Champion 2003, and HBO Def Poet in 2003 and 2005.
Susan Briante is the author of the book, Pioneers in the Study of Motion (Ahsahta Press, 2007). Briante’s poetry, essays and translations have recently appeared in Ploughshares, Damn the Caesars, Fascicle, Bombay Gin and The Believer. Briante is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Djerassi Foundation, among others. From 1992-1997, she lived in Mexico City where she worked for the magazines Artes de Me?xico and Mandorla. Briante is an assistant professor of aesthetic studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Farid Matuk is a Peruvian-born translator, essayist and poet. He is the author of Is it the King? (Effing Press). Recent poems appear in Big Bridge, Barrelhouse, Typesetter, and The Boston Review. Translations from Spanish have appeared or are forth- coming in Bombay Gin and Translation Review. Matuk’s essays and reviews have appeared most recently in Cross Cultural Poetics, Sentence Magazine, and the Poetry Project Newsletter.
Historic Events
Dallas Slams - Featured Reader
Shug
Location: Café Madrid - Bishop Arts,
408 N. Bishop Ave. Suit 108, Dallas, Texas 75208
Poetry saved Shug from selling out and losing herself in all-white private schools and, later, in A&M University. So now she is searching to see if poetry hid her in the schools to hide her from Big Brother in order that she may come out of exile and revolutionize herself and the rest of us.
Member Salon
Ronald Davison is a native of Dallas. A multi-media talent whose work spans poetry, painting and music, Davison is the author of Quiet Evolution (Introspect Books). Two new CDs called Circles and Quiet Evolution II are forthcoming soon.
Frederick Turner is an internationally known poet, lecturer, and scholar, and Founders Professor of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. A graduate of Oxford University, his books, plays, poems, and essays are too numerous to list but can be found at frederickturnerpoet.com. He was recently interviewed on the Discovery Channel’s science documentary, “Understanding Beauty.”
Hosted by Board Member Sarah Riehm
“An Intimate Evening with Dancing Tongue”
Paperbacks Plus Series - Time: 8 p.m. Suggested donation: $5
Location: Paperbacks Plus
6115 La Vista, Dallas, Texas 75214
The multi-media performance poetry troupe Dancing Tongue, the creators of the recent Literary Cabaret
series at the Undermain Theatre (with its cutting edge mixture of spoken word, music, performance, movement and video)
will present a causal evening of entertainment in the intimate confines of the upstairs lounge of Paperbacks Plus.
Join Tim Cloward, Lisa Huffaker, Fran Carris, Richard Allen & Kim Corbet for a thought-provoking experience
that will once again demonstrate that literature is, indeed, a lively art.
Dallas Slams - Featured Reader
John “Survivor” Blake
Location: Café Madrid - Bishop Arts,
408 N. Bishop Ave. Suit 108, Dallas, Texas 75208
John “Survivor” Blake’s nickname is no idle moniker. He has truly survived hellish circumstances and gone on to make work that, in the words of Carlos Andres Gomez, pulls “the reader or listener into the heart of his raw, fragmented truth of unshakeable power. He understands the incredible responsibility of being an artist, as much as anyone I have ever known.”
From Here Through Eternity
Paperbacks Plus Series- Time: 8 p.m. Suggested donation: $5
Location: Paperbacks Plus
6115 La Vista, Dallas, Texas 75214
Hosted by Christopher Soden, founder of Dallas Poets Community
Part ritual/part reading, this evening honors the legacies of great writers and artists who have transformed and influenced our work. Bring an object that reminds you of or is somehow connected to your favorite dead author to add to the ceremonial El Dia de Los Muertos tabla.
more info….
Northwood Literary Festival
Northwood University
1114 W FM 1382, Cedar Hill, TX 75104
Wordspace proudly co-sponsors this dynamic gathering of poets and fiction writers that takes place on the campus of Northwood University every fall. The event is held in Lambert Commons on Northwood’s 400 acre campus, located 25 minutes from downtown Dallas, just off Highway 67 south — the Joe Pool Lake exit. For a map, visit www.wordspacetexas.com.
Festival Chair is Martha Heimberg, Professor of English at Northwood and also Board Secretary for Wordspace.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Willard Spiegelman is the Hughes Professor of English at Southern Methodist University and has been editor of the Southwest Review since 1984. His latest book, a collection of meditations on happiness, is Seven Pleasures (FSG). He lives in Dallas, Texas.
Rock Baby, a native of Hattiesburg, Miss., is a natural per- former beginning with his television debut presentation on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. His charismatic performances tap into the emotions of audiences. His honors and titles include Dallas Poetry Team Slam Master, Grand Slam Spoken Word City Champion 2003, and HBO Def Poet in 2003 and 2005.
Susan Briante is the author of the book, Pioneers in the Study of Motion (Ahsahta Press, 2007). Briante’s poetry, essays and translations have recently appeared in Ploughshares, Damn the Caesars, Fascicle, Bombay Gin and The Believer. Briante is the recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Djerassi Foundation, among others. From 1992-1997, she lived in Mexico City where she worked for the magazines Artes de Me?xico and Mandorla. Briante is an assistant professor of aesthetic studies at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Farid Matuk is a Peruvian-born translator, essayist and poet. He is the author of Is it the King? (Effing Press). Recent poems appear in Big Bridge, Barrelhouse, Typesetter, and The Boston Review. Translations from Spanish have appeared or are forth- coming in Bombay Gin and Translation Review. Matuk’s essays and reviews have appeared most recently in Cross Cultural Poetics, Sentence Magazine, and the Poetry Project Newsletter.
Dallas Slams - Featured Reader
Al Houston
Location: Café Madrid - Bishop Arts,
408 N. Bishop Ave. Suit 108, Dallas, Texas 75208
Since 2002 A. J. Houston has been a member of the Fort Worth Slam Team. Performing at Slam venues and Slam contests all over the nation.
His chapbooks include Anchored In Prose, Counting Petals, Just Flow, Sunday Shoes, Refrigerate After Opening,
What If Words Mattered, and Let There Be Pens. He can also be seen on the DVDs That’s What Poets Do (AJ Houston Live),
Battle of Da Flows (What’s Love Got To Do With It), Battle of Da Flows (Twas The Slam Before Christmas),
Texas Poets @ Nationals, and Street Poets Volume One. You can find him online at http://njalphabets.org
