Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
SEASON VII Oral Fixation @ Moody Performance Hall
Insecto-Ray Orchestra @ ArtSpeak
What: ArtSpeak
When: Saturday, 9/29, 8:30 pm
Where: Mighty Fine Arts, 409A N. Tyler St., 75208
WordSpace presents performance art in conjunction with Andy Don Emmons’ art exhibition at Mighty Fine Arts.
Insecto-Ray Orchestra, features the immensely talented Marco Villalobos and his awesome musical partner Werner Heimlich, The Insecto-Ray Orchestra could be described as a neo-psychedelic mutant jazz spoken word disco dance band if you’re impressed with labels but they really pretty much define themselves as they go along, constantly overstepping musical boundaries and endlessly improvising and experimenting. This is only possible and intriguing due to the virtuosity of the players and their immense talents. Be sure to come out and check out the Insecto-Rays in a rare intimate setting.
Anne Waldman and Ambrose Bye : Expo Park Crawl @ Dallas Lit Hop
WHAT: Exposition Park Crawl with headliner Anne Waldman!
WHEN: April 27 from 5:00 – 8:45 PM
5:00 – 5:45 EIGHT BELLS ALEHOUSE, 831 Exposition Ave
Mad Swirl Poets
6:00 – 6:45 CRAFT AND GROWLER, 3601 Parry Ave
Clancy Manuel
Annie Benjamin
6:45 – 7:20 LAS ALMAS ROTAS, 3615 Parry Ave
Tejana Cosmica
7:30 – 8:45 SANDAGA 813, 813 Exposition Ave
ANNE WALDMAN AND AMBROSE BYE
CLICK HERE FOR FULL DALLAS LIT HOP SCHEDULE!
Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye
Anne Waldman has been a presence in the American literary scene since the 1960’s. As well as being the author of over forty books, she was has been a Guggenheim Fellow and is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 1968 she established the St. Marks Poetry Project in New York City, which continues to be important venue for American poets. Along with Allen Ginsberg she founded, in 1974, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado. The Jack Kerouac School continues to be one of the most important creative writing programs in the country today. Throughout her career she has collaborated with artists and musicians including Bob Dylan, Thurston Moore, John Cage, and Meredith Monk. She annually curates dozens of diverse voices from around the globe to present their work and teach in the JK Summer Writing Program. Her latest book, Trickster Feminism, was released in 2018 and has garnered wide praise. https://hyperallergic.com/453801/anne-waldman-trickster-feminism-penguin-poets-books-2018/ . Her connections to Texas writers began in the 80s with Dallas based Paris Records and her Texas students and peers continue to provide a cross-pollinating network of influence on emerging writers in Dallas. Allen Ginsburg perhaps best captures the spirit of Anne Waldman. “I like Anne Waldman best of all the women poets because she swings most and orates most and sings most…She also gets up like a dancing skeleton and makes wind through her bones!…She has affairs with books. She writes, publishes, copulates and gives birth to books. She teaches her apprentices to listen like Plato…She has affairs with sapphires, emeralds, amber, and rubies. She knocks me out. She thrills my bones. She is Anne Waldman.”
Ambrose Bye is a jazz musician and producer, owner of Fast Speaking Music. He teaches studio recording at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program and has produced nearly fifty spoken word and jazz recordings. He has toured the world extensively as musical accompaniment to Waldman and numerous others.
The Expo Park Crawl starts at 8 Bells with the Mad Swirl! The legendary open mic series started in 2004 has meta sized into one of the most prominent in Dallas. The Swirl has fostered a deep community of exceptional talents in its First Wednesday progarms and is a touchstone of the Dallas open mic scene. For the Expo Park Crawl they will be presenting MH Clay, Johnny Olson, Vic Victory, Carlos Salas, Tamitha Curiel, Chris Zimmerly, Brett BA Ardoin and Chris Curiel.
Next, head over to Craft and Growler for performances by Clancy Manuel and Annie Benjamin. Fort Worth based musician Clancy Manuel creates soundscape songs that mirror her guitar explorations. Known for her art house performances, her music is both intimate and experimental and innovative. Annie Benjamin is a celebrated Dallas singer songwriter who is a past winner of the B.W.Stevenson songwriting contest. She has performed at Poor David’s Pub, Uncle Calvins Coffee House and Opening Bell. Her songs are winsome and engaging and mirror her charm and charisma.
After, walk over to Las Almas Rotas for Tejana Cosmica with Opalina Salas, Tamitha Curiel, Amy Zapien and Priscilla Rice. Poet Laureate of Oak Cliff, Opalina Salas is a tireless advocate of spoken word. She is founder of the Poets on X+ Series and an accomplished writer and performer. Tamitha Curiel is a writer, actor, and educator. She is host of the Pleasant Groove Poetry Series and a member of the experimental sound band Swirve. Amy Zapien experiments with visual and performing arts and rituals. She has exhibited at Lawndale Art Center, the Oak Cliff Cultural Center and Casa de Locos. Priscilla Rice is a poet, actor and storyteller. She has appeared in several noteworthy theatrical productions and she is co-founder with B.Randall of the Verse and Rhythm Poetry Series.
Finally, make it over to Sandaga for the Lit Hop headliners Anne Waldman and Ambrose Bye!
Joaquin Zihuatanejo Book Launch @ Latino Cultural Center
What: TransNational Impressions, A Book Launch Celebration
When: Wednesday, November 7, 7:30
Where:Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St, Dallas, TX 75204
Hosted by: Mylan Nguyen
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present TransNational Impressions.
Join us to celebrate the launch of Joaquin Zihuatanejo’s award winning new book, and national tour. 
Arsonist is the winner of the 2018 Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry.
Photo: Jess Ewald
Joaquín is a poet, spoken word artist, and an award-winning teacher. In 2005, Joaquín was featured on season five of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for HBO. For seven years, Joaquín was a highly esteemed public high school English teacher for ninth and eleventh grade students, inspiring a new collection of poems from the classroom entitled Stand Up and Be Heard. For the last three years,
Joaquín has taken a break from his teaching position to tour North America and Europe, teaching workshops and performing his one man spoken word show at hundreds of colleges, universities, conferences, and poetry slams. In his extensive journey as a professional performance poet, Joaquín has shared the stage with Billy
Collins, Saul Williams, E. Lynn Harris, Alicia Keys, and Maya Angelou among others.
As the current Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Joaquín recently represented the United States at The World Cup of Poetry Slam Championship in Paris, France and won that title as well.
Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife, Aída, and poetry, always in that order.
ALSO IN THIS SERIES:
NOVEMBER 28
Tim Z. Hernandez is an award winning poet, novelist, and performance artist. His debut collection of poetry, Skin Tax (Heyday Books) received the 2006 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the James Duval Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. His debut novel, Breathing, In Dust (Texas Tech University Press) was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and went on to receive the 2010 Premio Aztlan Prize in Fiction. His second collection of poetry, Natural Takeover of Small Things was released in 2013 and received the 2014 Colorado Book Award, and his novel, Mañana Means Heaven, which is based on the life of Bea Franco, also released in 2013, went on the receive the 2014 International Latino Book Award in historical fiction. Both books are with the University of Arizona Press. His latest book, “All They Will Call You,” was released on January 28, 2017, also with the University of Arizona Press. A genre bending work labeled a Documentary Novel, it is based on the song by Woody Guthrie, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”
Most recently, Hernandez was one of four finalists for the inaugural Freedom Plow Award from the Split This RockFoundation for his work on locating the victims of the plane wreck at Los Gatos. As a performer he has collaborated with Grammy Award winning classical composer Eugene Freisen, and in 2001 was commissioned by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to write and perform an original play on homelessness. Since 2007, he has worked with Poets & Writers Inc. and the California Center for the Book at UCLA teaching poetry, fiction, and non-fiction workshops across the west coast. From 2010-14 he was the state-wide coordinator for Colorado Writers-in-the-Schools with focus on rural, under-served communities. He is a frequent guest artist at Universities, cultural institutions, and literary centers across the United States and internationally.
Hernandez holds a B.A. in Writing & Literature from Naropa University and an M.F.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He is currently a full-time Assistant Professor in the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program.
MAY 8
Rosemary Catacalos, 2013 Texas State Poet Laureate, was accidentally born in Florida during WWII of parents from San Antonio. She returned to San Antonio when she was three. Her poems are widely published in high school and college textbooks, among other venues. Her work has twice been collected in the annual Best American Poetry anthology and has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Stegner Fellowship Program at Stanford University, and the Paisano Fellowship of the Texas Institute of Letters/University of Texas at Austin. One of her poems is included in Caroline Kennedy’s anthology, She Walks In Beauty, A Woman’s Journey Through Poems. Ms. Catacalos’ first full-length collection, Again for the First Time received the 1985 Texas Institute of Letters poetry prize. Again for the First Time was reissued in 2013 on its thirtieth anniversary. Also published in 2013 was a chapbook of newer poems, Begin Here, also from Wings Press.
Rosemary Catacalos @ Latino Cultural Center
What: TransNational Impressions, Season Finale
When: Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 pm
Where: Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St, Dallas, TX 75204
Hosted by: Tammy Melody Gomez
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present the TransNational Impressions reading series.
Rosemary Catacalos, 2013 Texas State Poet Laureate, was accidentally born in Florida during WWII of parents from San Antonio. She returned to San Antonio when she was three. Her poems are widely published in high school and college textbooks, among other venues. Her work has twice been collected in the annual Best American Poetry anthology and has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Stegner Fellowship Program at Stanford University, and the Paisano Fellowship of the Texas Institute of Letters/University of Texas at Austin. One of her poems is included in Caroline Kennedy’s anthology, She Walks In Beauty, A Woman’s Journey Through Poems. Ms. Catacalos’ first full-length collection, Again for the First Time received the 1985 Texas Institute of Letters poetry prize. Again for the First Time was reissued in 2013 on its thirtieth anniversary. Also published in 2013 was a chapbook of newer poems, Begin Here, also from Wings Press.
Presenting Ms. Catacalos is Tammy Melody Gomez, a Chicanx literary arts curator, performance artist, director and writer who honors Earth with her work and bicycle lifestyle. She was a 2015-2018 Black Earth Institute Fellow and she is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. As award-winning poet (Best Poet of Austin, Austin Chronicle, 1997), she has performed throughout the U.S., Mexico and Nepal. Her poetry and essays have been featured in publications such as Yellow Medicine Review (2009) and Women in Nature: An Anthology (Louise Grace Publishing, 2014). Tammy is profiled in “Las Tejanas: 300 Years of History” (UT Press, 2003), and is featured in “Voices from Texas”, a PBS documentary film about Latino poets in Texas.
Also In This Series:
November 28
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present TransNational Impression reading series.
Tim Z. Hernandez is an award winning poet, novelist, and performance artist. His debut collection of poetry, Skin Tax (Heyday Books) received the 2006 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the James Duval Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. His debut novel, Breathing, In Dust (Texas Tech University Press) was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and went on to receive the 2010 Premio Aztlan Prize in Fiction. His second collection of poetry, Natural Takeover of Small Things was released in 2013 and received the 2014 Colorado Book Award, and his novel, Mañana Means Heaven, which is based on the life of Bea Franco, also released in 2013, went on the receive the 2014 International Latino Book Award in historical fiction. Both books are with the University of Arizona Press. His latest book, “All They Will Call You,” was released on January 28, 2017, also with the University of Arizona Press. A genre bending work labeled a Documentary Novel, it is based on the song by Woody Guthrie, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”
Most recently, Hernandez was one of four finalists for the inaugural Freedom Plow Award from the Split This RockFoundation for his work on locating the victims of the plane wreck at Los Gatos. As a performer he has collaborated with Grammy Award winning classical composer Eugene Freisen, and in 2001 was commissioned by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to write and perform an original play on homelessness. Since 2007, he has worked with Poets & Writers Inc. and the California Center for the Book at UCLA teaching poetry, fiction, and non-fiction workshops across the west coast. From 2010-14 he was the state-wide coordinator for Colorado Writers-in-the-Schools with focus on rural, under-served communities. He is a frequent guest artist at Universities, cultural institutions, and literary centers across the United States and internationally.
Hernandez holds a B.A. in Writing & Literature from Naropa University and an M.F.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He is currently a full-time Assistant Professor in the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program.
NOVEMBER 7
Join us to celebrate the launch of Joaquin Zihuatanejo’s award winning new book, and national tour.
Arsonist is the winner of the 2018 Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry.
Photo: Jess Ewald
Joaquín is a poet, spoken word artist, and an award-winning teacher. In 2005, Joaquín was featured on season five of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for HBO. For seven years, Joaquín was a highly esteemed public high school English teacher for ninth and eleventh grade students, inspiring a new collection of poems from the classroom entitled Stand Up and Be Heard. For the last three years,
Joaquín has taken a break from his teaching position to tour North America and Europe, teaching workshops and performing his one man spoken word show at hundreds of colleges, universities, conferences, and poetry slams. In his extensive journey as a professional performance poet, Joaquín has shared the stage with Billy
Collins, Saul Williams, E. Lynn Harris, Alicia Keys, and Maya Angelou among others.
As the current Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Joaquín recently represented the United States at The World Cup of Poetry Slam Championship in Paris, France and won that title as well.
Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife, Aída, and poetry, always in that order.
Tim Z Hernandez @ Latino Cultural Center
What: TransNational Impressions
When: Wednesday, November 28, 7:30 pm
Where: Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St, Dallas, TX
Hosted by: Priscilla Rice
Special Music Guest: Marco Villalobos
WordSpace is honored to partner with Latino Cultural Center to present TransNational Impression reading series.
Tim Z. Hernandez is an award winning poet, novelist, and performance artist. His debut collection of poetry, Skin Tax (Heyday Books) received the 2006 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and the James Duval Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation. His debut novel, Breathing, In Dust (Texas Tech University Press) was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, and went on to receive the 2010 Premio Aztlan Prize in Fiction. His second collection of poetry, Natural Takeover of Small Things was released in 2013 and received the 2014 Colorado Book Award, and his novel, Mañana Means Heaven, which is based on the life of Bea Franco, also released in 2013, went on the receive the 2014 International Latino Book Award in historical fiction. Both books are with the University of Arizona Press. His latest book, “All They Will Call You,” was released on January 28, 2017, also with the University of Arizona Press. A genre bending work labeled a Documentary Novel, it is based on the song by Woody Guthrie, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee).”
Most recently, Hernandez was one of four finalists for the inaugural Freedom Plow Award from the Split This Rock Foundation for his work on locating the victims of the plane wreck at Los Gatos. As a performer he has collaborated with Grammy Award winning classical composer Eugene Freisen, and in 2001 was commissioned by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to write and perform an original play on homelessness. Since 2007, he has worked with Poets & Writers Inc. and the California Center for the Book at UCLA teaching poetry, fiction, and non-fiction workshops across the west coast. From 2010-14 he was the state-wide coordinator for Colorado Writers-in-the-Schools with focus on rural, under-served communities. He is a frequent guest artist at Universities, cultural institutions, and literary centers across the United States and internationally.
Hernandez holds a B.A. in Writing & Literature from Naropa University and an M.F.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He is currently a full-time Assistant Professor in the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program.
Rosemary Catacalos, 2013 Texas State Poet Laureate, was accidentally born in Florida during WWII of parents from San Antonio. She returned to San Antonio when she was three. Her poems are widely published in high school and college textbooks, among other venues. Her work has twice been collected in the annual Best American Poetry anthology and has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Stegner Fellowship Program at Stanford University, and the Paisano Fellowship of the Texas Institute of Letters/University of Texas at Austin. One of her poems is included in Caroline Kennedy’s anthology, She Walks In Beauty, A Woman’s Journey Through Poems. Ms. Catacalos’ first full-length collection, Again for the First Time received the 1985 Texas Institute of Letters poetry prize. Again for the First Time was reissued in 2013 on its thirtieth anniversary. Also published in 2013 was a chapbook of newer poems, Begin Here, also from Wings Press.
NOVEMBER 7
Join us to celebrate the launch of Joaquin Zihuatanejo’s award winning new book, and national tour.
Arsonist is the winner of the 2018 Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry.
Photo: Jess Ewald
Joaquín is a poet, spoken word artist, and an award-winning teacher. In 2005, Joaquín was featured on season five of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for HBO. For seven years, Joaquín was a highly esteemed public high school English teacher for ninth and eleventh grade students, inspiring a new collection of poems from the classroom entitled Stand Up and Be Heard. For the last three years,
Joaquín has taken a break from his teaching position to tour North America and Europe, teaching workshops and performing his one man spoken word show at hundreds of colleges, universities, conferences, and poetry slams. In his extensive journey as a professional performance poet, Joaquín has shared the stage with Billy
Collins, Saul Williams, E. Lynn Harris, Alicia Keys, and Maya Angelou among others.
As the current Individual World Poetry Slam Champion, Joaquín recently represented the United States at The World Cup of Poetry Slam Championship in Paris, France and won that title as well.
Joaquín has two passions in his life, his wife, Aída, and poetry, always in that order.
Poets On X+ at MFA
Who: Nadia Wolnisty and Paul Koniecki
When: Friday, January 11, 8 PM
What: Poets on X+ Feature and Open Mic
Where: Mighty Fine Arts, 409 N. Tyler St. 75208
Hosted by: Opalina and Carlos Salas
Come Join Poets on X+ for a very special night of spoken work and open mic! This month we are featuring Nadia Wolnisty and Paul Koniecki as they read from their latest publication, You’ve Gotta Let It Go Before It Takes You Over. Sponsored by WordSpace.
Nadia Wolnisty is the submissions editor of ThimbleLitMag.com. Her work has appeared in Spry, Philosophical Idiot, Apogee, Anti-Heroin Chic, *Isaucoustic, Blue Pepper Review, McNeese Review, Paper & Ink, and others. She has chapbooks from Cringe-Worthy Poetry Collective, Dancing Girl Press, and from Finishing Line Press and a full-length from Spartan.
Paul Koniecki lives and writes in Dallas, Texas. His poems appear in Richard Bailey’s movie, “One of the Rough”. His books of poetry are currently available at Kleft Jaw Press, NightBallet Press, CWP Collective Press, and Spartan Press. Reverie Koniecki and her husband Paul host Meet Me With Curiosity (a poetry experiment) at Klyde Warren Park in Dallas and aspire to attack the paradigm with a deliberate focus of radical love.
Sign up for Open Mic starts at 7:30, performance at 8 and open mic at 9. Light Refreshments will be served. Come out and see the wild side of Oak Cliff and hear the Poets of X+!
WordSpace is honored to sponsor Poets on X+ Reading Series, created by Opalina and Carlos Salas, an ongoing series since 2007.
More on X+ Reading Series here!
ArtSpeak: Moni Bell @ Mighty Fine Arts
When: Saturday, February 24
Where: Mighty Fine Arts, 409A N. Tyler Street, 75208
What: “It’s In The Water”
ArtSpeak is an artist performance showcase in conjunction with exhibition opening nights.
Moni Bell’s show “Release in Shadow” contains swirling imagery that lie somewhere in the cusp between wakefulness and slumber. There is a twilight aspect to her shape shifting drawings that seem to be morphing as you take them in. Her intent is contemplative absent serenity and monotony. She engages our attention with subtle jolts of invention and cathartic delerium. Her Artspeak performance of “It’s in the Water” features Moni Bell addressing issues ranging from Love to Garbage.
Moni Bell is a visual artist, musician, writer and performance artist. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries, including The Dallas Public Library and Mighty Fine Arts. Along with software superman, Max Bell, she teaches monthly youth computer education programming to the Dallas Public Library as “The Dallas Young Makers Club”. Monika recently performed in Thomas Riccio’s “Holy Bone” iteration of Dead White Zombies project and is the former co-curator of special events at Incense and Peppermints.
“Release in Shadow” by Moni Bell
Fraility of the mind
Reslience of the planet
Cruelty of the heart
Evil and kindness in nature
Unraveling here
Winding up there
Selfish,Ego dissolving
Ocean, Wind, Land
Rolling, Engulfing, Consuming
Thrashing, emerging
Releasing
in shadow
LIT HOP! One Page Salon @ Wild Detectives
Thursday, April 12: One Page Salon (Winner, Best Austin Literary Series (The Statesman)
*Featuring local published authors reading one page of new works in progress
@ Wild Detectives
Hosted by Owen Egerton
Event Sponsor: Writers League of Texas
Curated by: Dee Mitchell
Time: 7:30 PM
One of Austin’s most beloved reading series – One Page Salon – is heading to Dallas for a special evening of quick readings, slow drinking, and lots of literary shenanigans.
One Page Salon (called “the best literary evening in town” by the Austin American-Statesman) is the brainchild of novelist, screenwriter, and comedian Owen Egerton. During the course of the evening, five writers will read a single page from a work in progress (goodbye, literary readings that go on and on and on) and answer three questions from the host (hello, witty banter with Owen). Midway through, there’s a break for eating (tacos!), drinking (coffee, beer, Topo, oh my!), and talking (this. is. the. best. part.).
This special presentation of One Page Salon is brought to you by Owen Egerton and the Writers’ League of Texas as part of WordSpace Dallas Lit Hop.
The current line-up of readers includes: Sanderia Faye, Sarah Hepola, Jeramey Kraatz, Alex Lemon, and Samantha Mabry. Come for the tacos and beer, stay for the sneak peek at some terrific writings-in-progress.
Find this event on Facebook here.
