Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Kelley Baker: The Angry Filmmaker
Who: Kelley Baker
What: First Hearings
When: October 23, 7:30 PM
Where: The Wild Detectives
Kelley Baker calls himself The Angry Filmmaker, although he seems like a nice enough guy.
Since 1982 he has produced thirteen short films and three features, using a DIY approach that he has promoted through countless seminars to aspiring filmmakers and two books:
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part One: Making the Extreme No Budget Film (2009 – 2nd Edition coming in 2017)
The Angry Filmmaker Survival Guide Part Two: Sound Conversations With (un)Sound People (2012)
For his WordSpace event Kelley reads and tells stories from his latest book Road Dog, a chronicle of seven years crisscrossing the U.S.A. with his chocolate lab in an endless quest to get his work shown and to spread the word that filmmaking can exist outside of not only Hollywood but just about any structure we usually associate with “the business.”
Come along for the ride.
This event is recommended for aspiring filmmakers (angry or not), fans of Labrador retrievers, and anyone who wants to hear more about teaching sound recording to the employees of a porn company, sharing rum shots at Hank Williams grave, or getting kicked out of the Prayer Tower at Oral Roberts University.
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.
Douglas Kearney @ the South Dallas Cultural Center
Who: Douglas Kearney
What: African Diaspora: New Dialogues with Douglas Kearney
Special Guests: Candy and Dallas Poetry Slam
Where: The South Dallas Cultural Center, 3400 S Fitzhugh Ave, Dallas, TX 75210
When: May 25, 2017, 7:30 pm
Hosted and Facilitated by Author Sanderia Faye, Winner, 2016 Wright / Hurston Award for Debut Fiction
Poet, performer, and librettist Douglas Kearney is the author of Fear, Some (2006), The Black Automaton (2009), which was chosen by Catherine Wagner for the National Poetry Series, Patter (2014), and Buck Studies (2016). Someone Took They Tongues (2016) collects several of his libretti. Mess and Mess and (2015) presents his writings on poetics and performativity. His work has appeared in a number of journals, including Poetry, Pleiades, Iowa Review, and Boston Review; and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, Best American Experimental Writing (for which he has also served as a guest editor), Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond, The Breakbeat Poets, and What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Poets in America. He has received a Whiting Writer’s Award, residencies/fellowships from Cave Canem, The Rauschenberg Foundation, and others. Raised in Altadena, CA, he lives with his family in California’s Santa Clarita Valley. He teaches at CalArts.
Douglas Kearney will present recent as well as new poems and discuss his unique approach to poetic form and expression.
Please join us for what promises to be an exceptional evening.
Sanderia Faye is an award winning writer, born and raised in Gould, Arkansas. She is the author of Mourner’s Bench (University of Arkansas Press, September 2015).
About African Diaspora: New Dialogues:
Three years ago, WordSpace met with Vicki Meek, the Manager of the South Dallas Cultural Center. SDCC had recently helped us promote Nikki Giovanni’s appearance at The Kessler and we realized a deeper partnership and think tank might just be the thing to do. Dee Mitchell and Vicki came up with the title: African Diaspora: New Dialogues. From there, we partnered in thought with folks like Sanderia Faye and are honored to have brought some of the best of new writing by the brightest stars of African Diaspora artists. Highlights have included Chris Abani, Mitchell Jackson, and Vievee Francis. These are important writers we want you to know about!
As Vicki Meek retired from 20 years of service from her position as Manager of South Dallas Cultural Center, we are now delighted to enjoy the same level of excitement in working with new SDCC manager, Harold Steward, to collaborate and bring this profound series. Since its inception, thanks to local writer/educators, these writers have appeared Dallas schools offering meaningful visits and readings.
Sponsored by WordSpace and South Dallas Cultural Center
Special Thanks, Harold Steward and Vicki Meek
FIRST HEARINGS: CAROL J. ADAMS IN CONVERSATION WITH PAMELA NELSON
When: October 12, 7:30 PM
Where: The Wild Detectives, 314 West 8th St, Dallas 75208
Hosted by: Charles Dee Mitchell
Carol J. Adams published The Sexual Politics of Meat in 1990. Her incisive and revolutionary investigation into the interplay between cultural misogyny and the meat industry raised hackles and changed lives. On the occasion of its 25th anniversary edition in 2015, South African novelist J. M. Coetzee wrote, “The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as when Carol Adams first diagnosed them twenty years ago.”
To celebrate the publication of her new collection of essays, The Carol J. Adams Reader, WordSpace hosts the author as part of our First Hearings Series on October 12 at The Wild Detectives. Following the reading, she will be in conversation with Dallas artist Pamela Nelson.
This is an opportunity to engage one of the world’s most important thinkers on the topics of ecofeminism, veganism, and spirituality.
AUTHOR’S BIO:
Carol J. Adams is the author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, recently released in a 
Bloomsbury Revelations/Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition. Her most recent book is The Carol J. Adams Reader: Essays and Conversations 1995-2015, available this fall from Bloomsbury. She is completing a book on A Caregiver Reads Jane Austen, a portion of which appeared in the New York Times last December as “Jane Austen’s Guide to Alzheimer’s.” Her essay “Toward a Philosophy of Care through Care”, drawing on more than ten years of journals kept during caregiving of three elderly people, will be published in Critical Inquiry next year. Two recent anthologies focus on the impact of Adams’ work on younger women, Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and The Sexual Politics of Meat, edited by Kara Davis and Wendy Lee, is a collection of essays by women who credit Adams’ work with shaping their lives in new and positive ways. The Art of the Animal: Fourteen Women Artists Explore The Sexual Politics of Meat, edited by Kathryn Eddy, L.A. Watson and Janell O’Rourke, is a powerful expansion of Adams’ insights created by artists and reflected in various media. www.caroljadams.com
Tyehimba Jess @ South Dallas Cultural Center
What: African Diaspora: New Dialogues
Who: Tyehimba Jess
Hosted by: Author Sanderia Faye
Where: South Dallas Cultural Center, 7:30 PM, April 6
Special Guests, courtesy of Dallas Poetry Slam: Javon Rustin and Don Juan
Admission is Free and Open to the Public!
TYEHIMBA JESS: Before reading his impressive bio, we want you to also know that we’ve seen Tyehimba in action and highly recommend his appearance as an entertaining as well as educational experience.
Bio: Detroit native Tyehimba Jess’ first book of poetry, leadbelly, was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. The Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005.” Jess, a Cave Canem and NYU alumnus, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004-2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Jess is also a veteran of the 2000 and 2001 Green Mill Poetry Slam Team, and won a 2000 – 2001 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Poetry, the 2001 Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award, and a 2006 Whiting Fellowship. He exhibited his poetry at the 2011 TEDxNashville Conference. Olio, his second collection, is forthcoming from Wave Books in April 2016. Jess is an Associate Professor of English at College of Staten Island. Jess’ fiction and poetry have appeared in anthologies such as Angles of Ascent: A Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Beyond The Frontier: African American Poetry for the Twenty-First Century, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art, Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Power Lines: Ten Years of Poetry from Chicago’s Guild Complex, Slam: The Art of Performance Poetry. His poetry has appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Brilliant Corners, Ploughshares, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas, Mosaic, American Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Nashville Review and 580 Split.
Sanderia Faye is an award winning writer, born and raised in Gould, Arkansas. She is the author of Mourner’s Bench (University of Arkansas Press, September 2015). Her work has appeared in various literary journals and in Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, edited by historians Dr. Jennifer Wallach and Dr. John Kirk. Faye is co-founder and fellow at Kimbilio Center for Fiction. She moderated a 2015 AWP panel and the grassroots panel for the Arkansas Civil Rights Symposium during the Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary. She is a recipient of awards, residencies, and fellowships from Hurston/Wright Writers Conference, Eckerd College’s Writers in Paradise Conference, Callaloo Writers Workshop, Vermont, Writers Studio, The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, and Martha’s Vineyard Writers Residency. Faye is also a PhD student in English at North Texas University. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She was an instructor for The United States Navy-Navy College Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE).
ABOUT SOUTH DALLAS CULTURAL CENTER
The South Dallas Cultural Center is a community center with a wide variety of programs inspired by the vibrancy and diversity of the African Diaspora. The SDCC seeks to educate and inspire through the visual, media, literary and performing arts. SDCC has presented some of the most dynamic visual and performing arts in Dallas. Harold Steward is the Manager of SDCC after retirement of Vickie Meek, whose decades of service to promote art and racial equity have profoundly influenced the cultural life of Dallas and the development of a whole new generation of African American artists SDCC hosts plays, readings, children and youth educational outreach, gallery exhibitions and musical performance year round. The South Dallas Cultural Center is located at 3400 S Fitzhugh Ave, Dallas, TX 75210. For more info on SDCC, please contact (214) 939-2787.
Sponsored by South Dallas Cultural Center, with partial support from Richland College.
In conjunction with African Diaspora: New Dialogues, Jess will also appear:
Where: Richland Literary Festival, Richland College, 12800 Abrams Rd, 75243
When: April 6, 11 AM – 12:20 PM
Hosted by: Dr. Sobia Khan
34th Annual Literary Arts Festival, April 4-6, 2016
Lago Vista Gallery, Richland College Library
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Tuesday, April4
11:00 am– Sanderia Faye, author of Mourner’s Bench
12:30 pm– Joe Stanco Faculty Reading
Wednesday, April 5
11:15 am– Matt Lyle, playwright of The Boxer, Hello Human Female and Barbecue Apocalypse
12:20 pm– Student Readings
Thursday, April 6
11: 00 am– Tyehimba Jess, keynote presentation followed by a fruit and cheese reception. Jess is a nationally renowned poet, author of leadbelly and Olio
Imani Cezanne @ Heroes
Born and raised in San Diego, CA, Imani Cezanne is a passionate
poet, workshop facilitator, community organizer and slam coach. She just recently returned home from taking 2nd place at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Austin, Texas. In the past four years Imani Cezanne has been on four National Poetry Slam teams (San Diego (2), Oakland and Da Poetry Lounge), three of which placed in the top six at the National Poetry Slam. Last season, along with two of her team members, she was invited to perform on the TV One network’s Verses and Flow, a cable television show dedicated to showcasing performance poets from around the country, all while obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies from San Francisco State University. Imani has
continued to grow as an artist while working with some of the
country’s leading poets including Rudy Francisco, Ant Black, and
Natasha Miller and been coached by San Diego’s Chris Wilson (San Diego Slam Team) and Da Poetry Lounge’s Shihan Van Clief (Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team). Imani is also the founding President of S.P.E.A.K. (SpokenPoetry Expressed by All Kinds), San Francisco State University’s first poetry-centered organization. She organized and hosted S.P.E.A.K.’s bi-monthly open mics which has showcased nationally known artists such as Rudy Francisco, Prentice Powell, Marshall Jones and more. She
facilitates their monthly writing workshops and coached SFSU’s first ever poetry slam team to 5th in the nation at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational this year.
WordSpace is honored to partner with Dallas Poetry Slam to produce Feature Readers on 3rd Fridays of every month at Heroes Lounge, 7402 Greenville Ave, Dallas, TX 75231.
Admission: $5 or Buy a VIP Season Pass
WordSpace Members Free: RSVP
Women of the World Poetry Slam
When: March 15-18
Hosted by: Candy and Dallas, TX
Sponsored by: Poetry Slam Inc
Ticket passes /More Info coming soon!
WordSpace is honored to partner with the national organization, Poetry Slam Inc. to sponsor the workshops component of the three day Women of the World Slam, coordinated and hosted by Candy for Dallas. Special Thanks to Candy (also Slam Master of Dallas Poetry Slam) for bringing this prestigious festival to the City of Dallas. Additional volunteer coordinators include GNO and Princess McDowell. Events associated with this festival will be held throughout the day and night. Daily competitions at venues in Deep Ellum, lead up to the final competition held at The Majestic Theater on Saturday, March 18. Festival passes and entry submissions for the festival will be available soon. Additional volunteer coordinators include GNO and Princess McDowell.
Still have questions? Check it: Poetry Slam Inc. WOWPS FAQ
About Poetry Slam Inc.: The mission of Poetry Slam Incorporated (PSI) is to promote the performance and creation of poetry while cultivating literary activities and spoken word events in order to build audience participation, stimulate creativity, awaken minds, foster education, inspire mentoring, encourage artistic statement and engage communities worldwide in the revelry of language.
Poetry Slam, Inc. is the official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization charged with overseeing the international coalition of poetry slams. Though slams are maintained in a growing number of cities by local volunteer organizers, the vast majority of slam series follow the rules established by the governing body, and are certified by the governing body as slams that adhere to the vision slam’s founders established for the art form over a decade ago. Because of slam’s exponential growth as an art form, PSI has emerged not only as an administrative body to maintain the rules which govern slam, but as an organization that seeks to grow slam’s audience and protect slam’s interests. The Executive Council, headed by a seven-member Executive Council comprised of poets and slam organizers, and voted on by representatives of local slams, maintains a vigilant watch of poetry slam series worldwide, insuring that slam maintains itself as an art form open to all competitors. Through the certification process and its annual organizational meetings, PSI has created the backbone for a community of poets who are in frequent communication with one another, in order to pool ideas and share creative resources to insure the future growth and recognition of slam. Poets from the community frequently embark on poetry tours in other slam cities, relying on each other to set up the venues and housing necessary for such tours.
While PSI’s main focus in past years has been the maintenance and growth of the National Poetry Slam, the organization is embarking on a series of programs and actions that seek to increase the public awareness of slams. These projects include the maintenance of an official website, an agreement with television producers seeking to stage slams for a major cable television network, and the formation of regional competitions, which would place officially-sanctioned team competitions in a number of host cities each year and concentrate the high level of talent present at the annual Nationals.
Poetry Slam, Inc. was first officially proposed in August of 1996, at the Slam Family meeting in Portland, Oregon, though it had been talked about at the annual spring meeting for at least two years prior to that.
A corporate Charter and official bylaws worked their way into existence through several steps over the course of the next year. But, by official and unanimous acclimation, Poetry Slam, Inc. was brought to reality on August 9, 1997.
About Women of the World Poetry Slam:
Women of the World Poetry Slam is a performance poetry tournament designed for individual competition, where poets will perform four poems of varying lengths during preliminary bouts. Taking place March 15th – 18th, the top poets will go on to finals to compete for the title of, The 2017 Women of the World Champion!
What are the rules?
Each poem must be of the poet’s own construction;
Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score.
The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments;
Of the scores the poet received from the five judges, the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together, giving the poet a total score of 0-30.
Preliminary Bouts: Thursday & Friday – The order in which poets perform in the first round of each bout is assigned by a random draw at registration. Poets will compete in in one, two round bout each night, having a different slate of competitors each night. The first round of every bout will have a calibration poet, and if you’re lucky, maybe even a sorbet. Competing poets should be familiar with the Preliminary Bout format.
THURSDAY: 4 & 1 minute poems
First Round: poets read a four minute poem. The order of the second round is determined by the score in the first round: poets will read in order from high to low score. Second Round: poets read a one minute poem.
FRIDAY: 2 & 3 minute poems
First Round: poets read a two minute poem. The order of the second round is determined by the score in the first round: poets will read in order from high to low score. Second Round: poets read a three minute poem.
The top twelve poets of all bouts advance to the finals.
SATURDAY: Final Stage
The thirteenth ranked poet is designated the calibration poet. All poems in the finals are three minute poems and no poems may be repeats from earlier in the tournament.
First Round: Twelve poets read, top seven move to the second round.
Second Round: Seven poets read, top ranked four of to final round.
Final Round: Four poets read and the poet with the highest score is crowned the Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion. If there is a tie between the top two poets, they read one more poem in a sudden death match. Judges indicate which poet they prefer and the champion is crowned.
FIRST HEARINGS: MELISSA GINSBURG
When: Mary 12, 2016 at 7:30 pm
Where: The Wild Detectives, 312 West Davis, Dallas 75208
Hosted by: Charles Dee Mitchell
Melissa Ginsburg
Before turning to crime. Melissa Ginsburg was a respectable poet who had attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and published two books of verse. This April, she publishes her first crime novel, Sunset City. The story is set in her hometown of Houston, Texas, and it involves murder, drugs, betrayal, secrets, and the miserable weather the city is known for. In other words — all the good stuff.
But Melissa has not rejected her poetic lineage. Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus has this to say:
“I am positively agog at this dizzying, addictive novel. A poetic meditation draped in the cloak of noir, an elegy with the heart-pounding pace of a murder mystery. Sunset City is raw, tough, and relentlessly exquisite.”
Please join for an evening of crime and poetry.
karen finley thanks you
Dear Friends,
Thank you for attending the WordSpace presentation of Karen Finley’s The Jackie Look. We hope you enjoyed the evening. If this was your first time to attend a WordSpace event, please visit out website to learn more about who we are and what we do. We produce over fifty events a season, ranging from poetry readings and book launch parties to poetry slams and performance art. Our events take place in venues all over Dallas, and most of what we do is free. Take a look at our calendar, grab a friend, and check out the lively local literary scene.
And please consider becoming a WordSpace member. Everyone who reads or performs for WordSpace receives an honorarium. That means that in addition to the nationally recognized authors and performers we present, dozens of local writers and artists get paid for what they do. This is a basic tenet of what we have done since our founding in 1994. Memberships help make this happen. Memberships also come with discounted tickets and other benefits described on the membership page of our website.
Sign up for our newsletter and like us on Facebook to see announcements of both local events and the visiting performers we have scheduled in the upcoming season.
Thanks again for attending The Jackie Look. Team WordSpace: Steve Cruz, Dee Mitchell, Laney Yarber, Jerry Kelley, Brenda Randall, Karen Minzer, Richard Bailey, Sara Cardona and Rock Baby.
