Author Archive
Fable The Poet @ Dallas Poetry Slam
Who: Fable The Poet
What: Dallas Poetry Slam Features
When: December 1
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Ave, 75231
Marcel “Fable” Price is the Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids Michigan
Author of “Adrift in a Sea of M&M’s”. He is a bi-racial North American writer, teaching artist, community activist, and motivational speaker.
Fable The Poet is highly noted for his work with the youth; spreading Mental Health Awareness using his own stories to consume the audience.
“At times, we all feel fragile. We are paper boats entertaining the waves of life.”
He is an official partner of Mental Health America and is known across the nation for crowd-interactive features that leave those attending enlightened and empowered.
Wil Gibson @ Dallas Poetry Slam
Who: Wil Gibson
What: Dallas Poetry Slam Feature
When: October 20, 8 pm
Where: Heroes, 7402 Greenville Avenue, 75231
WIL GIBSON is a writer that has lived in a lot of places or passed through them at some point but has only called a few places home. He currently lives in Humboldt County, California, where the trees are big. He has had 4 collections of poetry published by kind people, had self produced 3 cds and 6 chapbooks, and has been included in a number of anthologies and lit mags, He was a founding member in Portland Maine, has been featured on Button Poetry, and has bee on 7 national poetry teams from coast to coast.
WordSpace is honored to partner with Dallas Poetry Slam
to produce Feature Readers on 3rd Fridays of every month.
Jennine DOC Wright @ Dallas Poetry Slam
Who: Jennine Doc Wright
What: Dallas Poetry Slam Features
Where: Heroes, Greenville Ave., 7402 Greenville, 75231
When: September 15, 8 pm
Admission: $5, Free to WS Members
JENNINE DOC WRIGHT is a mother, writer, artivist and educator in Austin, Texas. She has competed in the Women of the World competition, Southern Fried competition and has been on multiple National Poetry Slam teams to include Killeen Poetry Slam that placed 2nd overall in the nation in 2012 and Neo Soul Poetry Slam coming in 1st in the nation in the group piece finals in 2013, 2nd in 2014, and 3rd in 2015. Jennine was the 2015 season slam champ for Austin’s Neo Soul was recently the coach for the Austin Poetry Slam 2016 national team that made it to semi finals. She currently teaches English at Huston-Tillotson University while serving as Co- Executive Director of the Speak Piece Poetry Project, a youth writing and poetry slam mentorship program. Jennine has one chapbook titled A Long Time Coming and a CD titled Real Talk. Doc focuses her writing on diverse topics to include race, gender, and identity. She is now working on her MFA in poetry at Spalding University.
WordSpace is honored to partner with Dallas Poetry Slam
to produce Feature Readers on 3rd Fridays of every month.
The Stoners, Inferno Texino and Dallas Poetry Slam
It’s that time again!
Join WordSpace (Got To!) for our annual Season Kick Off Party.
With Special Guests: Inferno Texino, The Stoners, Melania Luisa, Wayne Henry, Javon Rustin, Candy, Vicki Meek, Oral Fixation, and More Inimitable WS Presenters
$1 Tacos will be provided by El Padrino to go with your favorite beverage.
7 pm The Wild Detectives 8th and Bishop in the OC 75208
INFERNO TEXINO
These guys…an awesome music project featuring Andy Don Emmons, Clay Stinett, Jason Cohen and other distinguished artists (truth! They are distinguished!) All are regular contributors to WordSpace ArtSpeak series at Mighty Fine Arts. PS: It’s both Andy Don and Sandy Emmons’ birthdays that night.
Promises to be epic.
As always, Special Thanks to our friends and programming partners at The Wild Detectives.
Yuri Herrera-Gutierrez @ Latino Cultural Center
Who: Yuri Herrera
What: TransNational Impressions
When: May 2, 7:30 pm
Where: Latino Cultural Center
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present International Impressions.
YURI HERRERA-GUTIERREZ
Yuri Herrera studied Political Science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, obtained a master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of Texas, El Paso and a PhD in Hispanic Language and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the editor of the literary magazine El perro.
His first novel, Trabajos del reino, won the 2003 Premio Binacional de Novela Border of Words made Herrera into one of the most famous writers of Latin America. The novel was also edited in Spain (Periférica, 2008) and won the Premio Otras Voces, Otros Ámbitos, being considered the best work of fiction published in Spain by a jury of 100 people, including editors, journalists, and cultural critics.
Elena Poniatowska qualified his prose as “stunning” and the novel as an entrance “to the golden gate of Mexican literature”.
Gabriel Wolfson describes Herrera’s work as “amazing, constructed from exchanging cultured language for popular talk, emphasizing the importance of names, and using the forcefulness of certain terms while wisely omitting others”.
His second novel, Signs Preceding the End of the World (And Other Stories, 2015) has led Herrera to being considered one of the most relevant young Mexican writers in the Spanish language.
Saul Williams @ The Kessler
Who: Saul Williams
What: Headliners
When: October 19, 8 pm
Where: Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., 75208
Special Guest Appearance: Candy
WordSpace and Dallas Poetry Slam present
SAUL WILLIAMS
Saul Williams is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, musician, slam poet, writer, and actor. He is known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his lead roles in the 1998 independent film Slam and the 2013 jukebox musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, featuring Tupac Shakur’s music.
He graduated from Morehouse College with a BA in acting and philosophy, then moved to New York City where he earned an MFA in acting from New York University’s Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts. While at New York University he became part of the New York café poetry scene. Williams has also lived in Brazil as an exchange student from 1988 to 1989.
In 1996, he won the title of Nuyorican Poets Cafe‘s Grand Slam Champion. The documentary film SlamNation follows Williams and the other members of the Nuyorican Poets Slam as they compete in the 1996 National Poetry Slam held in Portland, Oregon. The following year, Williams landed the lead role in the feature film Slam, which won the Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize and the Cannes Camera D’Or.
As a songwriter and musician, Williams has performed with Nas, The Fugees, Christian Alvarez, Blackalicious, Erykah Badu, KRS-One, Zack De La Rocha, De La Soul. His first album was produced by Rick Rubin. In 2004, he released his self-titled album, then toured with Nine Inch Nails on their European tour in 2005. He appeared on the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, and toured with the group. Trent Reznor co-produce his next album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust.
Williams’ most recent album, MartyrLoserKing, was released on January 29, 2016.
Williams has been published in The New York Times, Esquire, Bomb Magazine, and African Voices, as well as releasing four collections of poetry. As a poet and musician, Williams has toured and lectured across the world, appearing at many universities and colleges.
Special Guest Appearance: Candy
Sherrie Zantea (Candy) has been writing and performing poetry for over 20 years. Candy made the 2007 Dallas Poetry Slam Team, and to date has been on 10 teams, the first woman to coach 4 and she is the current Slammaster/Executive Director of the Dallas Poetry Slam Organization
Candy is currently a teaching artist for Young DFW Writers, where she teaches curriculum based poetry techniques to students all over the country. In addition to her poetry slam experience, she has added to her resume 2017 Host City Coordinator of the Women of the World Poetry Slam and Individual World Poetry Slam Coordinator. She also maintains a ten-year partnership with WordSpace Non-Profit literary organization where she serves as Administrator and Facilitator of social media affairs. Candy has published a poetry/recipe book “Heirlooms”, a poetry CD “Candy Unplugged”, and continues to provide workshops all over the world.
SPECIAL THANKS!
This event is presented by WordSpace and Dallas Poetry Slam, with partial funding from The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs and National Endowment for the Arts.
Lonnie Holley @ South Dallas Cultural Center
Who: Lonnie Holley
What: African Diaspora: New Dialogues
When: November 9
Where: South Dallas Cultural Center, 3400 S Fitzhugh Ave, Dallas, TX 75210
Event: Performance at 7:30,
LONNIE HOLLEY
(Some of Holley’s stories might not hold up to very strict fact checking, but now, at the age of sixty-four and respected worldwide as an artist, he tells them well.)
Holley’s art is now in museum and private collections worldwide, and in the pst decade he has added music to his accomplishments, performing for often awestruck audiences at museums, universities and clubs throughout the United States and Europe.
Writing for The New York Times in 2014, Mark Binelli has said, “In terms of genre, Holley’s music is largely unclassifiable: haunting vocals accompanied by rudimentary keyboard effects, progressing without any traditional song structure — no choruses, chord changes or consistent melody whatsoever…Backstage, only a few minutes before showtime, I learned that each of his pieces is actually a one-time performance; his words and music, whether in the studio or on a stage, are entirely improvised.”
Lonnie Holley’s performance at The South Dallas Cultural Center is a rare opportunity for the Dallas audience to experience this remarkable, mesmerizing, and uniquely American artist. Asked recently after a performance at the De Young Museum in San Francisco whether he thought he was ready for Broadway, Holley answered, “I am Broadway.”
Natalie Diaz @ Latino Cultural Center
Who: Natalie Diaz
What: Transnational Impressions
When: November 15, 7:30 pm
Where: Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak, 75204
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present Natalie Diaz.
NATALIE DIAZ
Diaz’s debut book of poetry, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was a 2012 Lannan Literary Selection,[9] a 2013 PEN/Open Book Award shortlist, and “portrays experiences rooted in Native American life with personal and mythic power. Diaz currently lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona where she used to work on language revitalization at Fort Mojave, her home reservation. She worked with the last Elder speakers of the Mojave language.
Her work appeared has appeared in Narrative, Poetry magazine, Drunken Boat, Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, and Crab Orchard Review and Poetry Foundation. She teaches at Arizona State University.
Other awards include: Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry and Tobias Wolff Fiction Prize
Natalie Diaz grew up in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the border of California, Arizona, and Nevada. She attended Old Dominion University where she played point guard on the women’s basketball team, reaching the NCAA Final Four as a freshman and the bracket of sixteen her other three years. After playing professional basketball in Europe and Asia, she returned to Old Dominion University, and completed an MFA in poetry and fiction in 2006.
PBS Interview: http://www.pbs.org/video/2233488990/
OPP features Frank O’Hara
What: OPP features the work of Frank O’Hara
When: Sunday, May 21, 4-7 pm
Where: Deep Vellum Books, 3000 Commerce 75226
Hosted and Curated by: Joe Milazzo
Other People’s Poetry is proud to present the poetry of Frank O’Hara. We will be reading the complete contents of the great New York School poet’s LUNCH POEMS, plus a selection drawn from his posthumously issued collected works.
Readers: Dan Collins / Imana Cordova / Sean Enfield / Tom Farris / Alan Gann / Serena Howe / Lauren Felice Ayres Jarocki / Gabe Mamola / Ali Mizher / Misty Amber Moore / Craig Nydick / Johnny Olsen / Joel Page / Patrick Peterson-Carroll / Caitlin Pryor / Mike Soto
Copies of O’Hara’s LUNCH POEMS will be available for purchase at the event.
Special Thanks to Deep Vellum Books.
Deep Ellum Lit Hop II
Map of venues in Deep Ellum
INDEPENDENT BAR & KITCHEN – REGAL ROOM | 2712 MAIN ST
4-5 PM // DaVerse Lounge at Lit Hop
DaVerse Works is a spoken word performance and youth development program for middle and high school students, providing a safe haven for self-expression. The program integrates a formal curriculum—that teaches critical literacy skills through spoken word and poetry—with open-mic showcases for teens and young adults. This is a program of education nonprofit Big Thought and Journeyman Ink.
5:30 – 6:30 PM // MadSwirl at Lit Hop
Mad Swirl is a platform, a showcase and a stage for the many artists in this mad, mad world of ours. Mad Swirl takes the many sides of art and showcases at their website and on stage at City Tavern in Dallas (1st Wednesdays). Mad Swirl recognize s the madness of creation, the madness of life, the madness of art and tries to get the mad swirl of it all into as many heads as possible. Basically, Mad Swirl is an outlet…an electronic, print and live-wired creative outlet. Poetic line-Up: Johnny O , MH Clay, Opalina Salas, Chris Zimmerly, Desmene Statum, Brett Ardoin, Tamitha Curiel, Carlos Salas, and music madness swirled up by Chris Curiel.
KETTLE ART | 2650-B MAIN ST.
4 – 5:30 PM // Significance Imposed: A Reading at Lit Hop
A collaboration between The White Rock Zine Machine and MakeShift Photorama, this showcase demonstrates a love affair between the written word and the photographic eye. This group exhibition features twelve local photographers paired with twelve local writers in a collision of words and images. Each visual piece is illuminated through a unique, poetic vision, producing a passionate road trip through the wide open spaces distinctive to Texas. Featuring Diane Durant & Christopher Stephen Soden, Don Essmiller & A. Kendra Greene, Devyn Gaudet & Andrew Koch, Justin Goode & Caitlin Pryor, Jason Lee, Paxton Maroney & Dan Collins, Erin Reeves & Leslie Aguilar, Rachel Rushing & Robin Turner, David Simpson & Lisa Huffaker & Tim Cloward, Patti Simpson & Joe Milazzo.
6 – 7 PM // Dancing Tongue at Lit Hop
Dancing Tongue is a poetry/performance ensemble which takes the spoken word, scrambles it with music, visual art, movement and video to demonstrate that literature is, indeed, a lively art. Joining highbrow sensibilities with low cost aesthetics, the troupe has performed in galleries, bars, theaters, festivals and universities around Dallas since 1990. The current edition of Dancing Tongue features: Tim Cloward, Kim Corbet, Lisa Huffaker, Fran Carris, and Richard Allen.
7:30 – 8:30 PM // Dallas Fiction Writers Showcase
The biggest names writing fiction in Dallas, will be here to talk and read from recent works introduces you to the vibrant scene of fiction writing in Dallas. Authors reading will include: Sanderia Faye, Kathleen Kent, Blake Kimzey, and Jacob Rubin.
9:30 – 10:30 PM // Pandora’s Box at Lit Hop
Pandora’s Box Poetry Showcase loves a good party and great poetry so please join us at the ever ready Deep Vellum Bookstore for a night of poetry, music, love, laughter, and muse-inspired fun. This evenings features will include: JAZMON THE HEALER, James Madison West, Taylor Teachout,and Matthew HainesDRUGSTORE COWBOY | 2721 MAIN ST.
4:30-5:30PM // Dallas Poetry Slam at Lit Hop
The Dallas Poetry Slam is one of the oldest, most recognized, and respected poetry slams and/or open mic in the state of Texas. There is a slam or open mic every Friday at Heroes Lounge. This edition of Dallas Poetry Slam will feature a mixture of Dallas Slam Team poets and open mike poets.
6-7PM // Southern Mythologies at Lit Hop
This Deep Ellum Lit Hop showcase brings together six incredible artists living, working, and creating in Texas. Featuring work from: Leslie Marie Aguilar, Greg Brownderville, Stevie Edwards, Christopher Beard, Trista Edwards, and music by Kim Nall.
7:30 – 8:30 PM // Poets On X+ at Lit HopPoets on X+ is an open mike collective that meets the second Friday of every month at Lucky Dog Books in Oak Cliff. This showcase brings together some of their superstar performers: Ofelia Faz Garza, Hector Nico Ortiz, Nadia Wolnisty, Tom Farris, Kristine Spinner, Johnny Olson, Cj Critt. Mc’d by Carlos and Opalina Salas.
9 – 10 PM // Verse & Rhythm at Deep Ellum Lit Hop
Verse & Rhythm was founded in the Fall of 2012 with the intention of bringing local artists together to perform their spoken word, poetry, literature, music and other forms of artistic expression. Verse & Rhythm is held monthly on the last Saturday of month at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center and features a different artist every month. There is an open mic where all are welcome to participate. This edition of Verse & Rhythm will feature Rafael Tamayo, Brandon Jackson, Priscilla Rice, La Bell, Lyn Lyric.
