Archive for December, 2011
Da’rrell Cloudy and Jay Bean @ Deep Ellum Market
Da’rrell Cloudy and Jay Bean @ Deep Ellum Market
When: Saturday March 19th, 2011
Where: Stage, Indiana at Malcolm X
WordSpace and Deep Ellum Market present songwriter/poets Da’rrell Cloudy and Jay Bean in an inspiring interface of old Deep Ellum and what makes things new.
Da’rrell Cloudy began writing as a child prodigy of his father, poet Joey Cloudy. By 13, he had published a chapbook of poems, entitled “A Bullet To The Brain” and was presented as a Writer in the Schools in Dallas area schools. He has been a regular feature of open mic and poetry salon scenes since he was 11.
Jay Bean and Da’rrell began their music collaboration in Longview High School, later forming the electronia band Atrium and recorded a demo. Atrium was temporarily disbanded in circumstantial vagaries and Da’rrell and Jay have been performing as a duo all over the Dallas.
Gifted voices, contemplative perspectives, and beatific personas–Look for Da’rrell and Jay onstage behind Cafe Brazil at Deep Ellum Open Market, the historic neighborhood festival and brainchild of Brandon Castillo.
Prudence the Auset
Prudence the Auset:
When: Friday March 18th
Where: It’s a Grind Coffee House, 2901 Indiana
Prudence the Auset, is often referred to as the common day Maya Angelou. She was born the only female child to Raymond W Sneed, III and Frances J Sneed in July of 1975. The story as told by her mother is that she was named by the Most High himself.
Prudence means wisdom in everyday life.
Prudence the Auset began her career as an Actress at the age of 14. Her first debut was in the stage production “For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide When the Rainbow was Enough”. Produced by Mr. Willie A Minor at the South Dallas Cultural Center. At the age of 35, Prudence the Auset is still a part of the theatrical stage and performing in hit stage plays such as Body Parts, The Pastor’s Wife, Gossip is the Devi’s Mailman, You Better Ask Somebody and Through the Fire just to name a few. She has also had her Director’s debut in the upcoming motion film, In the Rain. A TIC and Isis Entertainment Production, and will be appearing in the Svelte Production film, What If The Grass Ain’t Greener…
Before there was acting there was a passion burning in this woman that in the year 2005 could no longer be smoldered. She appeared at a poetry reading in the heart of Dallas, Texas at the request of a family friend and the rest is history. Prudence the Auset hosted Poetry N Jazz for 2 years at TePheJez Jazz Club located in the heart of downtown Dallas, Texas. Prior to Poetry N Jazz, she was the co-host of Eklectic Nonsense which featured at the downtown Mosaic Lofts and later moved to TePheJez Jazz Club. She has shared the stage with poetry legends such as, RockBaby, GNO, Red Storm, Nnamdi, Black Page, Michael Guinn and Janean Livingston, just to name a few.
She often refers to her poetry as a testimony and storytelling. Prudence the Auset is known to take lemons and make lemonade with poetry. Her words have a way of traveling down some of the darkest of roads and finding light. She’s not only creative but inspiring. She’s the goddess of poetry forever evolving into divine light and truth.
Hosted by RockBaby and Alexandra Marie
Abe Louise Young and Anne Boyer
The Roxy Gordon Members Salon Series
When: Thursday March 10th, 2011
Where: Green Hill School
Abe Louise Young and Anne BoyerWordSpace is honored to partner with Greenhill School and Farid Matuk to share our Members Salon selections with their classrooms.
Abe Louise Young was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is an award-winning poet and journalist, who has long worked to reveal, chronicle, and publish forgotten voices. Her written documentary work has ranged from projects interviewing Holocaust rescuers and Hurricane Katrina survivors to mentoring gang-affiliated and transgendered youth writers. She has published poems in The Nation, New Letters, and Witness, and chapbook of poetry, Ammonite. Her anthology, Hip Deep: Opinion, Essays, and Vision from American Teenagers, was published by Next Generation Press.<
Anne Boyer‘s poetry has appeared in Shampoo, The Denver Quarterly, Unpleasant Event Schedule, and other journals. She is the author of the full-length poetry collection, The Romance of Happy Workers (Coffee House Press).
Anne Boyer is the author of a novel, Joan, forthcoming from Bloof Books in 2011 and she has also written a number of critically acclaimed chapbooks, including Anne Boyer’s Good Apocalypse (Effing Press), Art is War (Mitzvah), and The 2000s (Free Poetry). Recent poetry and prose can be found in Lit, Columbia Poetry Review, Burdock, and Property Press. She is a lecturer in digital culture, philosophy, and creative writing at the Kansas City Art Institute
Sarah V. Ms. 5’11
Dallas Slam Featured Reader Series
When: Friday February 18th, 2011
Where: It’s a Grind, 2901 Indiana
Stage Name: Sarah V. Ms. 5’11 was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM, She has been writing since she was 13, began performing at age 16 and later earned a spot on the 2009 Albuquerque youth slam team which competed at the Brave New Voices youth nationals poetry slam in Chicago. In 2010, Sarah V. assisted the Dallas/Fort Worth youth slam team as one of the coaches leading the team to the youth nationals in Los Angeles, California. Outside of being a poet, Sarah V. is a nurse, mentor, and youth advocate who enjoy working with the youth and strongly believes in the power of poetry.
Hosted by RockBaby and Alexandra Marie
Chris Hamilton and Michael Guinn
The Robert Trammell Reading Series at the Kessler
When: February 9th, 2011
Where: The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St.
Chris Hamilton has been featured at Might Fine Arts Gallery for the Poets on X+ reading series. You can also find him at The Madswirl readings at South Side on Lamar’s Absinthe Lounge. “Listening to Chris is listening to the universal consciousness; it is filled with such energy and passion, much like the Big Bang, an explosion, a slowdown, a retraction, eventually returning to a singularity. He is without a doubt one of the more exciting poets to get to hear if you get a chance, a definite do not miss “-Carlos Salas
Michael Guinn is co-founder Fort Worth Slams, poet, youth empowerment specialist and motivational speaker. He holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas at Arlington and worked for six years in Fort Worth as an investigator for the state’s Child Protective Services agency. He has participated in the Zawadi Writers, an ad hoc African-American group that performed and held writing workshops in prisons, inner-city community centers and women’s shelters, and as part of after-school programs. For more on FW Slam and Michael, visit his website www.mikeguinn.com.
Words, Chocolate, Bliss: Rosalyn Story and Jennifer Wallach
Words, Chocolate, Bliss: Rosalyn Story and Jennifer Wallach
When: Thursday January 27th, 2011
Where: Chocolate Secrets, 3926 Oak Lawn Ave.
WordSpace, Chocolate Secrets and Real Men Cook present Booksigning, Reading, Live Jazz and Taste Party at Chocolate Secrets! Special Treat: Rosalyn Story will bring her Violin!
Rosalyn Story is a professional classical violinist, journalist and author of both fiction and non-fiction. A member of the violin section of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Fort Worth, Texas, she divides her time between performing and writing magazine and journal articles on the visual and performing arts, and has penned three books. Her articles have appeared in Essence, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, Stagebill (the magazine of Lincoln Center), The Crisis (the magazine of the NAACP), and she has been a frequent contributor to Opera News magazine since 1990. Her first book, And So I Sing: African American Divas of Opera and Concert, the first comprehensive history of black women in opera, was the inspiration for the PBS documentary Aida’s Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera (in which she appears as commentator and served as consultant), and has been broadcast in the United States, Europe, and New Zealand. Her first novel, More Than You Know, set against the backdrop of the jazz worlds of Kansas City and New York, was an Essence Magazine bestseller, and has been developed into a screenplay. Her second novel, Wading Home, set in post-Katrina New Orleans, was released in September 2010, and was an Essence magazine book club pick and ‘recommended read.’ A native of Kansas City, Rosalyn Story now lives in Dallas, Texas.
Jennifer Jensen Wallach is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Texas. She is the author of Closer to the Truth than Any Fact: Memoir, Memory, and Jim Crow (2008) and Richard Wright: From Black Boy to World Citizen (2010) and is the co-editor of the forthcoming Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, 1962-1967. She is currently working on an overview of U.S. food history that is to be published by Rowman & Littlefield. In 2010 History News Network named Dr. Wallach a “Top Young Historian.”
Don Juan Da Chosen One
Don Jaun Da Chosen One
When: Friday January 21st, 2011
Where: It’s a Grind Coffee House, 2901 Indiana
Don Juan Da Chosen One is a father, husband, brother, son, friend, actor, poet and lover of the arts who recently earned an Associate’s Degree in Acting Performance. Born and raised in Fort Worth TX, Don Juan has quickly become a nationally known and well respected spoken word artist after embarking on the performance aspect of his poetry career. He is a current member of the 2010 Dallas Poetry Slam Team who ranked among the Top 20 in Nation and in 2009 he represented the city of Fort Worth, TX at the Individual World Poetry Slam (iWPS).
Outside of writing and performing perfecting his craft, Don Juan manages his own company Da Chosen One Productions. Additionally, Don Juan mentors the youth of various organizations as well as advocating for those lacking courage or without a voice. He believes the youth should be shown “there is a future without limits.”
Don Juan has been writing poetry for many years and though he claims he’s no “POET”, once he takes the stage and open his mouth, his words say otherwise. All of his poetry is based on real life experiences that is said to touch to your very soul. Thus is why he is dubbed “Da Chosen One.”
Hosted by RockBaby and Alexandra Marie
Let It Bleed, Issue #2: Opalina Salas, Lilly Penhall & More!
The Robert Trammel Readings Series at the Kessler
When: Wednesday January 12, 2011
Where: The Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis
Let It Bleed, Issue #2: Opalina Salas, Lilly Penhall & More!
The new Femme Zine–Let It Bleed girls, darlings to many, slaves to no one. Bond girls meet Brontes…Girls gang up…In your face and It’s Personal. Wordspace is pleased to present the release and reading for the second issue of Let It Bleed.
Opalina Salas is the co-Beat Sensibilitist-owner, proprieter of Cliff Notes Prolonged Media Bookstore next to the Kessler Theater, with her husband, poet Carlos Salas. She has hosted, curated and read in venues all over Dallas. Opalina Herebia Salas is the Editor of Let It Bleed and a de-facto Oak Cliff Director for women advancing their claim to Lit Pack recognition.
Lilly Penhall enjoys a hedonistic life, having been disillusioned by a religious upbringing. She returns to her writing with a fevered passion after a seven year writer’s block called marriage. First published at the age of 8, her work reflects a vibrance and love of life, uncommonly uncomplicated by ways of a free-spirited way of living. She is involved in many open mic events in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, including Mad Swirl, Lost Art Open Mic and Poets on X+. She has been published in Dallas Morning News, Forces Literary Magazine, Let It Bleed and Mad Swirl, and has a book of poems titled “O,” published through Death List Five/Project 108 Productions. Lilly attended University of North Texas, graduating cum laude with a degree in English Composition and Rhetoric. She currently resides in Plano, Texas, and surrounding couches.(Photo: Desmene Statum)
NerCity
NerCity
When: Friday October 7th, 2011
Where: The Boiler Room, 2723 Elm
NerCity (Pronounced “Inner City poet/spoken word artist, activist, host, teacher, student and more importantly father; you cannot mention spoken word poetry in the Oakland/Bay Area without mentioning nercity’s name. His poetry is brash and unapologetic while always trying to touch at least one person with each performance. With 5 well received CD’s and an impressive resume under his belt which includes 2-Time Grand Slam Champion, Nationals Finalist, numerous slam championships & spoken word honors while also sharing or providing stages for some of the biggest names in the spoken word or music industry. “I perform like it’s my last time that I’ll ever see these people, because in this world you never know if it just might be.”
The Dallas Poetry Slam Featured Reader Series Hosted by Rock Baby and Alexandra Marie
Peter Orozco @ Tyler-Davis Arts District Block Party!
Peter Orozco @ Tyler-Davis Arts District Block Party!
When: Saturday October 8th
Where: WordSpace, 415 N. Davis St and The Whole Block!
Peter Orozco @ Tyler-Davis Arts District Block Party!
Second Saturdays of every month, from 6-9, WordSpace joins the community of visual artists, musicians and merchants in the Tyler-Davis Arts District of Historic Oak Cliff to throw a neighborhood festival of events. The WordSpace loft will be screening Peter Orozco‘s amazing video archive of the lit scene in Dallas, including his project at Bill’s Records, Lost Art Open Mic. Peter is a photographer, writer and videographer who has been documenting the poetry and music scenes for many years. An exhibit of his photographs will be on display, as well. Check out his website for an invigorating presentation of his beautiful work and archives.
Visit our new neighbors and friends in historic Oak Cliff- Tom Battles Custom Picture Framing , 413 N.Tyler, 4-8pm and Gallery Bomb, 407a N.Tyler, MFA Gallery, 419 N.Tyler, Be sure to drop by our WordSpace office, 415 N.Tyler, chillax, pick up our Schedule of Literary Events. Incense and Peppermints, 421 N.Tyler, will be further putting out the good vibes with live music and art. Across the street at Oil and Cotton, 838 W.Davis they’ll be celebrating their new Back Porch Studio with festivities throughout the day. Over on Davis, Kelly at The Rose Garden, 841 W.Davis, promises special event day bargains, always some great finds at the Garden. And don’t forget to visit Wendi at From the Ends of the Earth, 835 W.Davis for Fair-Trade exotica from around the planet. Stop in at CoCoAndre, 831 W.Davis, for, really, just the best chocolate treats in Dallas. And Daniel and Manuel Padilla Gallery, 829 W.Davis, are helping further the arts in the Cliff with their fine work. Expect Complimentary beverages, snacks, scenes and suprises! See yall out there! Carlos and Opalina Salas’s Cliff Notes is down the street for your Beat book jones and The Kessler Theater is the best music venue, eclectically curated by Artistic Director Jeffrey Liles
Our office, staffed by Program Director, Karen X Minzer, is in Dallas’s Oak Cliff neighborhood. It is an open door for artists, poets, educators and community leaders to interact and interface their work with ours. It also provides open-genre venue for salons, workshops, booksignings, iCHat and other experimental genres, not to mention the ongoing X+ Arts, Bishops Arts, and Tyler/Davis Arts block parties and festivals. Our office is located at 415 North Tyler St., Dallas, Texas 75208. Stay tuned to our website for any last minute planning over here in this very active and vital Dallas arts and culture scene.
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