Shimmying the Spoken Word: Sensing the Sensual w/Sugar Shack Burlesque - Thursday, May 12

The Inspired Word Presents "Shimmying the Spoken Word: Sensing the Sensual" with Sugar Shack Burlesque, featuring some of New York City's most original artists - Dame CuchiFrita, Jezebel Express, RunAround Sue, Advocate of Wordz, Jo Boobs, Jonny Porkpie, John DeVore, and Madame K.

Plus, a 12-slot open mic (open to ALL types of artists, but pieces MUST be geared toward our theme - something sensual about the senses).

Don't miss out on this uniquely hot, sensory-titillating night.

*****

On the menu, a positively delicious evening delving deep into the senses:

Dame CuchiFrita- TASTE (working with Advocate of Wordz)

Jezebel Express - TOUCH (using her own work)

Madame K - SMELL (using her own work)

Jo Boobs - SOUND (using her own work)

Jonny Porkpie - SIGHT (using his own work)

RunAround Sue - SIXTH SENSE (working with John DeVore)

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BIOS:

A self professed chameleon, Dame Cuchi pushes the boundaries to morph into characters. Coming from an indigenous culture where nudity is shunned, she often felt out of place. Her belief in storytelling through shedding the exterior, is a scintillating response to growing up in the shadows of Dutch Colonial repression. Watch the memorable moments as Cuchi The Grease Monkey honors her sensual side where she invites the audience to get in touch with their inner "peeping Tom" in Little Red Corvette. In X-Files government conspiracy can only be proven plausible by disrobing to her very basic accoutrement.

Jo Weldon is the Headmistress and Founder of the New York School of Burlesque, and quite likely the most recognized burlesque instructor in the world. Internationally renowned as burlesque personality Jo Boobs, she's rounded her heels on stages from Coney Island to Sydney Harbour. She was recently voted one of the Top 3 Burlesque Performers in the World. She's taught thousands of women (and men!) to twirl tassels, and has conducted performance workshops producing some of the most respected new performers in burlesque. She's the winner of such exotic titles as Best Bump N Grinder, Best Teacher and Mentor, and Biggest Cougar in Burlesque! She has worked with performers from Leonard Cohen to Spinal Tap, and has been featured on television shows from CBS Sunday Morning to Gossip Girl. She's taken it off in the grimiest strip clubs and at the most esteemed venues, including The New York Public Library, and has performed and headlined at dozens of festivals all over the world. She is Co-Director of Education at The Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, and conducts the Master Class in Burlesque at Coney Island USA. She has released three acclaimed how-to burlesque DVDs, and her book The Burlesque Handbook, with a foreword by Margaret Cho, was released by HarperCollins/ItBooks in 2010.



Miss Jezebel Express is a New York-based burlesque artist, teacher, producer and dance choreographer. Jezebel holds a BA in Dance Choreography from the University of Iowa, and has been awarded State of Iowa, University of Iowa, Department of Dance and Newfoundland Arts Council grants for her artistic work. Jezebel co-produces Glitter & Gin, a gender-bending burlesque-theatre extravaganza and vintage fantasy jazz party The Champagne Riot. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and Amor y Sexo, as well as in the Village Voice, The New York Daily News, NEXT Magazine, The New York Press and The Washington Examiner. Jezebel is a faculty member at the New York School of Burlesque, and currently performs at various venues around New York City, as well as nationally and internationally at festivals and private events.

Often called "The Moving Violation" and "The Make it Happen Girl," RunAround Sue currently produces and performs regularly with her company Sugar Shack Burlesque in NYC, Brooklyn, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington DC. She has had the honor of performing at the New York Burlesque Festival, Slipper Room, Starshine Burlesque, Sweet and Nasty Burlesque, The Jalopy Music School, Ars Nova, Galapagos, Public Assembly, The Living Theatre, The Palace of Wonders, and many other enchanting venues on both coasts and on both sides of the Mason Dixon line. Miss Sue has a background in performance and first appeared on the stage in a mother's day play presented by her kindergarten class. She played the little girl. She also spent many years developing the runaround part of herself through long and varied road trips during which she would say things like, "Can we stop by Memphis today?" and "How about we head North?" Eventually, she hightailed it to the big city where her sense of southern hospitality soothes many a broken heart. Find out more about her on her here http://www.sugarshackburlesque.com/

John DeVore is a playwright, editor and blogger. His plays have been performed in New York, Chicago, Vancouver, London and Edinburgh DeVore has written for The New York Times, Maxim Magazine, Comedy Central and CNN.com. He has been heard on Sirius Satellite Radio and been seen on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, G4TV and CBS.

Papers, stages, mics, unfair parking tickets, chastity belts - the Advocate of Wordz rips them all! This Bronx native has been fashioning the English language and teaching kids how to talk their way out of detention for a decade now. He is the creator of HipHopPoetry.com, a founding member of El Grito De Poetas and the host of the "Open Room" at the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café. He is also a cast member of the "Lose Control Comedy" troupe and performing poet for Lincoln Center's "Meet The Artist" series. Wordz has toured the country and his work has been featured and/or written about in El Museo Del Barrio's "Speak Up! Speak Out!" series, PBS, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, San Jose Mercury, Orlando Sentinel.



Ms. Karen Lee (aka Madame K) began her career on the Broadway stage and around the globe, titillating and educating audiences to the delightful pleasures of the senses through song and dance. She now spreads her message throughout the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, where she has become the 'Queen of Burlesque', after the sensational BURLESQUE FOR BOOKS event at the Lenox Library with Sugar Shack Burlesque. Ms. Lee is a featured dancer/ MC of GYPSY LAYNE, the Berkshires first home grown burlesque troupe, as well as an actor, choreographer and owner of PILATES CENTRAL. Madame K is thrilled to be bringing her country flair to the city air with her muse and musical genius (and accordion) Ms. HEATHER FISCH, also a force of nature and burlesque pioneer in those parts. These two delectable divas conspire to inspire your desire,to squeeze and tease, to move and groove, to shake and bake, and create. To thine own self be true.

Jonny Porkpie, recently awarded the title of "Best Naked Impresario" by NY Press, is the co-creator, producer, and writer of Pinchbottom Burlesque ("Best Burlesque" in NYC -New York Magazine, The Village Voice, called "daring, funny, imaginative, and titillating for all tastes" by the Sunday Telegraph UK), and of Grab My Junk, an internationally-franchised bump-and-grind game show. He is one of the first-ever recipients of the "Most Innovative" award from the Burlesque Hall of Fame, and has taught burlesque across the country and around the world, from NYC to Seattle, and as far away as England and New Zealand. He is the author of the burlesque murder mystery "The Corpse Wore Pasties," (Hard Case Crime) which Publishers Weekly described as "witty and telling."



*****

When: Thursday, May 12, 2011

Where: One and One (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC

Doors Open: 6:30pm

Cover Charge: $15

Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.