When: Thursday, September 17, Party starts at 7:00pm. Performance starts at 8:00pm.
Where: The Wild Detectives (Oak Cliff)
Hosted by WordSpace: Charles Dee Mitchell, RockBaby, Sara Cardona, Jean Lamberty, Steve Cruz, Jerry Kelley, Laney Yarber, Richard Bailey, and Karen X Minzer.
Last year the WordSpace Season Launch Party gathered around 50 friends and supporters for a night of drinks, conversation, and presentations. This year we are making the party bigger in every way. Poets Amber Tamblyn and Derrick Brown have been causing a scene wherever they go with their Lazers of Sexcellence Tour. On September 17, they will be performing free on the outdoor stage at The Wild Detectives.
Here’s the thing about Amber Tamblyn: How many poets have a resume that includes a story arc on Two and Half Men and a stint as guest blogger for The Poetry Foundation? I’m pretty sure that puts Amber in a field of one. Amber Tamblyn is an actress and a poet. If you are a woman in, say, your late twenties or early thirties, you probably remember her as the eponymous Joan of Arcadia. Since then she has continued to act and to publish four well-received books of poetry. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who knows about these things, said of her first collection, “A fine, fruitful gestation of throbbingly nascent sexuality, awakened in young new language.” Roxanne Gay described her latest book, Dark Sparkler, as “astonishing.”
Derrick Brown is a poet, performer and publisher based in Austin, Texas. As a slam poet, he has performed in over 1800 venues ranging 
from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, to The Glastonbury Festival in the UK and The Sorbonne in Paris. (The one in France.) His 2012 collection Strange Light won Texas Poetry Book of the Year. In 2004, he founded Write Bloody Publishing which to date has out close to 100 books. And, like Amber, Derrick is not without acting credits. In 2014 he provided the voice of Mappy in Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
This duo has been touring the country with The Lazers of Sexcellence, described as a “ruckus…of poetry, comedy and music.” Come out to enjoy the show, hear what else WordSpace has planned for the year, grab a $1.00 taco (while they last) and select one of the happy hour specials at The Wild Detectives Bar.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
September 17 is North Texas Giving Day, the day when a portion of every dollar you give to one of the participating non-profit organizations earns matching funds from The Dallas Communities Foundation.
WordSpace is a non-profit, and we are participating. As the day approaches, your in box will no doubt fill with reminders from every school, museum, theater, dance company, and wildlife rescue organization you have ever crossed paths with. Please be generous and think of WordSpace. Donations must be made on the internet through the NTGD portal, but WordSpace will have volunteers standing by to make the process as quick and painless as possible. (Or you can give at home during the day.)
THE WORDSPACE PLEDGE TO YOU: Our fundraising will not slow down the fun on September 17.