Archive for July, 2017
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/
