The official blog of Mike Geffner's Inspired Word NYC open mic/performance series that happens every week in downtown Manhattan, featuring the best spoken word artists, spoken word poets, singers, musicians, comedians and storytellers. Upcoming open mic event info; pics, words, videos from past open mic shows; current news in the performing arts, open mics, poetry, spoken word, comedy, music, and storytelling.
Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word features the incredibly talented international poet Samantha Thornhill (accompanied by guitarist Valerie June) and award-winning poet Veronica Golos, making a special guest appearance coming all the way from Taos, New Mexico.
There will also be a 15-slot open mic (open not only to poets and spoken word artists but fiction/nonfiction writers, comedians, monologists, singers, and musicians).
*****
When: Thursday, March 31, 2011
Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
Phone: (212) 598-9126
Doors Open: 6:30pm
Cover Charge: $10
*****
BIOS:
Sprouted from a family of educators, international poet Samantha Thornhill performs her poetry on stages from South Africa to Hungary. Writing since age 8, Samantha went on to receive her bachelors in creative writing from Florida State University and her masters in poetry from the University of Virginia. Samantha has since built a life for herself in New York City, where she serves as writer in residence at the Bronx Academy of Letters and teaches poetry to actors in training at the Juilliard School. She is currently at work on her young adult novel Seventeen Seasons, to be published by Penguin/ Putnam. Her ode to the late folk legend Odetta is available from Scholastic as a picture book. Recently, Samantha was the beneficiary of a Jerome Foundation travel grant, which enabled her to spend three months in her homeland, Trinidad & Tobago. For more info, please visit http://www.samanthaspeaks.com./
Veronica Golos won the 16th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize (Story Line Press) for her book, A Bell Buried Deep (to be re-issued by Red Hen Press), and is the author of Vocabulary of Silence (Red Hen Press, 2011). An award-winning curator and teacher for Poets & Writers, Poet’s House and 92nd St Y/Makor in New York City, Ms.Golos’ work has been published and anthologized nationally and internationally, and adapted for theatrical productions in New York City’s Theatre Row, and the Claremont Theological Seminary in California. Her poetry was the centerpiece of My Land is Me, a four-artist multimedia exhibit in Taos, NM that questioned the western view of the Veil. For more info, please visit http://veronicagolos.wordpress.com/
A "self-taught" guitar player, composer and troubadour of heartbreak ballads, folk songs, spirituals, soul-stirring blues and what she calls “Organic Moonshine Roots Music," Valerie June is poised to reach a wide audience as one of the stars of the ballyhooed new MTV web series “$5 Cover” which is written and directed by Craig Brewer, creator of the Oscar-winning movie: Hustle & Flow. Her alluringly haunting voice of distinction appeals to fans similar to those of Linda Thompson, Michelle Shocked, Jeff Tweedy, Sinead O’Connor, Jessie Mae Hemphill along with the music world’s most famous Bobs; Dylan and Marley. She pursued song-writing and performing at the age of 19, while a member of the husband-and-wife team, Bella Sun. Her relatively early marriage wasn’t a surprise, the oldest girl in a strict Christian family of five children, she was domestic as well as ambitious — she pretty much raised her siblings and, as Valerie says: “Granddad always feared for my hips because I always had a baby on ’em.” For more info on Ms. June, please visit http://valeriejune.com/
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This event was funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Claudia Alick @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Alick is a playwright, performance artist, actress, producer, teacher, journalist, and HBO Def Poetry poet. She produces the outdoor performance series "The Green Show" for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, has guest-lectured at New York University, Montgomery College, taught with Arena Stage and The Shakespeare Theatre, and was named by American Theater Magazine as one of 25 theater artists who will shape American Theater in the next 25 years. She has also served as the Artistic Director of Smokin' Word Productions, authored and directed plays staged at The Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, LaMama E.T.C., Cherry Lane Theater, and the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, and is a member of the award winning NY Neofuturists. She lives in Ashland, Oregon.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
Def Poetry Star Regie Cabico @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including The Outlaw Bible of American Poery, Spoken Word Revolution & Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. He is a 3 time National Poetry Slam Finalist and appeared on 2 seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. He received a NY Innovation Theater Award for his work in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind & fellowships from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The DC Commission for the Arts & The Hip Hop Theater Festival. He recently performed on tour with Sister Spit & co-wrote 2 Dicks & A Diva with D'Lo & Kit Yan for Zero Capital.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
Author/Activist JLove Calderón @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word NYC spoken word poetry event, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Manhattan, NYC.
Calderón is an author, activist, and social entrepreneur working on issues of social justice, race, and gender. She has authored four award-winning books, and produces book publishing seminars nationally. Her first novel inspired by a true story, That White Girl, has been optioned for film. For her book Love, Race, and Liberation; 'Til the White Day is Done, she was a finalist in the Social Change category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards. She graduated Cum Laude from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Africana Studies and received her M.A. in Education from Long Island University. For more info, visit http://www.jlovecalderon.com/
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new poetry/spoken word series, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner. Past features have included Patricia Smith, Suheir Hammad, Willie Perdomo, Vanessa Hidary, Lemon Andersen, Gemineye, Regie Cabico, and Oveous Maximus.
Poet/Spoken Word Artist Steve Colman @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word NYC spoken word poetry event, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Manhattan, NYC.
Colman is a poet, playwright, producer, and director. He co-wrote and starred in the Tony Award-winning Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway and co-conceived and assistant directed Sarah Jones's Tony Award-winning Broadway hit Bridge and Tunnel, which was originally produced by Meryl Streep. He also produced Lemon Andersen's critically acclaimed County of Kings at The Public Theater. Colman began performing poetry at the Nuyorican Poets Café on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He won the National Poetry Slam championship as a member of the 1998 Nuyorican Poets Café slam team.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new poetry/spoken word series, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner. Past features have included Patricia Smith, Suheir Hammad, Willie Perdomo, Vanessa Hidary, Lemon Andersen, Gemineye, Regie Cabico, and Oveous Maximus.
ii.
From the Red Sea, from its salt water, in its warm shallow shoals,
…Behold!
Here are my good…dead
rising!
They rise between river and river, between sword and sword.
They rise between the hour of song and the hour of work
between the echo and its saying. They rise inside
the cup-shaped hollow of pelvis—they rise and ripen and never grow old:
Mohammad Omar Jawad Ali Selma Madia Fatima Suhad Hussein Ahmed Salam Azad Aysha Maysoon Nuhad Faisal Raad Zaid Widad Nuha Haifaa Amal Kifah Souad Fallujah Ramadi Diyala Basra Gaza
iii
My day is a froth out of which the dead rise,
these particular dead, the ones who come every morning in the middle of prayer.
They cushion my knees and follow my hand movements.
They are residue in all that I drink.
I place my forehead to the floor.
I fumble with the lyric, move my finger as a blind person
along its calligraphy.
It is written: I am cause—and comfort.
Veronica Golos, who will be reading at The Inspired Word on Thursday, March 31, won the 16th annual Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize (Story Line Press) for her book, A Bell Buried Deep (to be re-issued by Red Hen Press), and is the author of Vocabulary of Silence (Red Hen Press, 2011). An award-winning curator and teacher for Poets & Writers, Poet’s House and 92nd St Y/Makor in New York City, Ms.Golos’ work has been published and anthologized nationally and internationally, and adapted for theatrical productions in New York City’s Theatre Row, and the Claremont Theological Seminary in California. Her poetry was the centerpiece of My Land is Me, a four-artist multimedia exhibit in Taos, NM that questioned the western view of the Veil. For more info, please visit http://veronicagolos.wordpress.com/
Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word features The Robin & The Lady Poet (the duo of musician Robin Andre and poet Erica Miriam Fabri) and poet Eliel Lucero + 15-slot open mic (open to poets, spoken word artists, fiction/nonfiction writers, comedians, monologists, singers, and musicians).
*****
BIO:
Eliel Lucero is a native New Yorker of Afro Dominican Decent. He is a poet and a DJ. His work appears in the International Poetry Review (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro ) and in Barber Shop Chronicles (penmanship press). He has performed his work, all over NYC, The Bay Area, Eugene Oregon, Baltimore, D.C. Honolulu and a few other places. He has served as co-editor of the Acentos Review, an Urban Word Mentor, a facilitator with the Alzheimer's Project, and as Production Manager of the Bowery Poetry Club, among other jobs and tasks he performs all over the city.
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The Robin and the Lady Poet are a hybrid-mix of music, poetry and performance. Robin Andre (musician, singer/songwriter and performer) and Erica Miriam Fabri (poet and performer) are NYC-based artists and partners in love. Their work embraces romantic and political storytelling and a touch of sexy humor and genuine heart goes into all that they do.
Robin Andre is a Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter, performer and recording artist. He was signed to RCA records for his debut album “Paper Bag” and has recorded, performed and toured in 32 different countries world-wide with multi-platinum artists such as The Dave Matthews Band, The Fugees, Mariah Carey, Lil Flip and Inaya Day. His solo work is a tight blend of rock, hip-hop and reggae sensibility. His newest hit-sensation single, “Betty,” is featured on itunes and he recently completed filming the colorful and funky music video by director, Jose Infante. Robin Andre, a natural entertainer, has also starred in off-Broadway musical theater productions, and worked as a commercial actor and professional dancer. He writes, performs and tours solo as well as in the duo “The Robin and the Lady Poet” and also can be seen performing live every week in his hometown with the iconic house band at the legendary “Village Underground” in Greenwich Village, NYC.
Erica Miriam Fabri is the author of “Dialect of a Skirt.” She is a writer and performer and a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She received her MFA in Poetry from The New School. Her work has been published in numerous journals and magazines and she has facilitated workshops and seminars at Cooper Union School of the Arts, New York University, Columbia University and Penn State University. She has worked on projects as a writer, editor and performance director for The New York Knicks, HBO and Nickelodeon Television. Erica has been awarded a writer’s residency at the Omega Institute, has been a featured and/or visiting poet/performer for drug rehabilitation centers, prisons and hospitals. Her first book, “Dialect of a Skirt,” was included on the list for: The Best Books of 2009 at About.com and made the Small Press Distribution’s bestseller list for June 2010 as well as the Poetry Foundation’s bestseller list for October 2010. She is currently a spoken word mentor and curriculum writer for Urban Word NYC, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing spoken word, poetry and hip-hop arts to inner-city teens. She also teaches Performance Poetry at Pace University, Creative Writing at The School of Visual Arts and a variety of Poetry courses at Baruch College and Hunter College of The City University of New York (CUNY).
Spoken word poet Rich Story @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, March 3, 2011, @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Born and raised in Harlem, NY, Rich Story is a former Nuyorican Poets Cafe slam team member as well as a founding member of the The Silent Poets. He was also a finalist for the Soundbites NYC Poetry Festival Indie Slam 2008 and the 2009 Soundbites NYC Poetry Festival 2009. Committed to youth development, he works for the Harlem Children Zone and has worked as a counselor for special needs children, led writing workshops at a youth shelter and has also facilitated weekly discussion based lessons for youth offenders at Rikers Island.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series (with major features + an open mic) that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
Spoken word poet Yenny Love (with Eric Frazier on the congas) @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, March 3, 2011 @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Yenny is poet, actress, and producer who has been appeared in various hip hop music videos, on television, and in independent and feature films (such as John Singleton's Shaft). She has performed poetry at many popular New York City venues, including the S.P.I.T. Open Mic Series at Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, Feed your Soul, Nuyorican Poets Café, Urban Juke Joint, La Pregunta Arts Café, and the Soule restaurant. She's also appeared in El Desafio La Gran Batalla (a Latino reality show of Survivor for Univision) and has a lead role in the very popular new web series by film Director Tony Clomax, "12- Steps to Recovery." Love is currently working on developing her own company, Love Productions.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series (with major features + an open mic) that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
Comedian Boris Zilberman @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, March 3, 2011, @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Boris Zilberman is a stand-up comedian, improviser, and writer from New York City who absolutely loves an audience, and once opened for Professor Alan Dershowitz. He's appeared as a comedian on MTV, New York Comedy Club, the Astoria All-Stars Show, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and the People's Improv theater, and as a spoken word performer in Birthright Israel Presents: Monologues, a spoken-word/hip-hop show directed by Def Jam veteran Poet Vanessa Hidary.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series (with major features + an open mic) that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word's 1st EVER Slam Master Jam for Poets, Spoken Word Artists, and Storytellers!
This is the first leg of 5 Inspired Word slams in 2011. The winners of the first 4 slams will be eligible to face off in the championship finals in Dec. for $500 in total prize money: $300 (+ paid 2012 feature spot) for 1st place. $100 for 2nd. $75 for 3rd. $25 for 4th.
Go in!
DISCLAIMER: No $$$ prizes awarded for THIS leg of the 5-leg series.
When: Thursday, March 17, 2011
Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
http://www.oneandoneny.com/
Phone: (212) 598-9126
Doors Open: 6:30pm
Cover Charge: $10
Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.
*****
20 slots, three rounds:
First round - 20
Second round - Top 4
Third round - Top 2
Strict Guidelines: 3-minute/one-poem limit each turn (plus a ten-second grace period; if the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score), must be original work, must be a different piece each round (so MAKE SURE you bring THREE pieces).
Of the scores the person receives from five judges, the high and low scores will be dropped and the middle three get added together, giving the person a total score of 0-30. The highest scores in each round advance.
A saxophone’s the only thing
ever made me feel
like a woman,
thighs thrumming with sass
of spiderlimbed arpeggios
tickling into me. I bury a knuckle
in the valley of nose & brow
unearthing delicious chaos there.
A gone lover used to privately convulse
this way in our aftermaths—tingling
showers of notes leave me
no choice: I’m not ashamed
moaning my consent, but this
feminine breathiness of me!
astonishes—
gilded unabating shriek
banishing all smoke
between us. My loins clench
the multiple goodness & trick
me into thinking it’ll stop.
But the lustrous master’s
got another
rollicked-stiff release. It loves
my ass, it needs
my tits, it makes me
hot, it
bursts for me
& is lulled by the cymbal’s dissipation.
II. New Orleans (Backyard)
A bonfire’s the only thing
to make me a man again—dragging driftwood
up bouldered dunes of Lower 9th Ward
in porkpie hat & blue dashiki.
The banjos come in threes
with beards & panting dog
named Satchel Paige. To wag a tail
at my glittering lager is to dance
slathered in blackberry paste
between a mama bear & its cub.
Smoke braids shut the eyes. Moon
tonguekissed aglow. Sparked beads
of light will serve as necklace
to repurpling sky. So fill my glass up
to the brim/To lose the memory of him
we crow to flame as hollow as a gourd
and become this fiddle cradled
in a planet of sharp thighs, wept
into paroxysmal orbit. I’m six high lives
towards a blacklipped sheath, perched
on shipwrecked mattress & framed
by absence of nuzzly hair—tasting
burnt of a nut brown ale, handful
of pignoles for a chaser—my sleep
picnicked in by all her whirling smoke.
Richard Prins was born in New York but would rather die in Dar es Salaam. He's underway with his MFA in Poetry at New York University. His hobbies include politics and the blues; his work has appeared in such publications as Night Train, elimae and Catalonian Review.
I have yet to decide if I want to sell my soul to the Devil.
See the Devil has offered me all the fame and money in the world.
I would have all of it. All of it.
Yet I will loose out on being happy in the moment; walks in the park; watching children play in the playground; such simple pleasures in life.
I keep struggling twenty fours a day for all of it. I can't keep doing that.
So I agree to sell my soul to the Devil.
We agree that when I have milked my fifteen minutes of fame and money. The Devil will have my soul.
So it comes to that point when I am ready to give him what we agreed to. My Soul.
As a woman of my word. I give him my soul.
The Devil is happy with it.
He has my soul and the only thing I am left with is my tears.
Ankita T. Pandya is a poet by heart and mind and a Patient Navigator at the American Cancer Society by profession and passion. Born in India and raised in the United States, poetry runs in Ankita's genes, whose late grandfather was a creative poet and writer in India. She holds a Bachelor's of Science in Community Health from William Paterson University.
Where: (Le) Poisson Rouge (downstairs Gallery Bar)
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)
Manhattan, New York City http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/
Phone: (212) 504-3474
Doors Open: 6:30pm
Cover Charge: $10
Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.
The Inspired Word presents the first of what will be a regular feature of its weekly Thursday night series: Big Apple BAP: NYC's Best American Poetry Poets.
It is a night celebrating this city's finest poets, whose poems over the years have been honored with inclusion in the highly respected annual anthology. http://www.bestamericanpoetry.com/
The debut lineup includes a dazzling array of poets: Katha Pollitt, Mark Bibbins, Jennifer Michael Hecht, David Shapiro, R. Erica Doyle, Jerome Sala, Elaine Equi, Michael Cirelli, Stacey Harwood, George Green, Carly Sachs, Matthew Yeager, Amy Holman, and David Lehman (who will also host the event).
Each poet will read the poem or poems appearing in BAP, as well as something new.
Please join us for what promises to be an amazing night of poetry.
*****
Produced by: Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word
When: Thursday, June 16, 2011
Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
Phone: (212) 598-9126
Time: 6:30pm
Cover Charge: $15
Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.
*****
BIOS (in alphabetical order):
Mark Bibbins is the author of The Dance of No Hard Feelings and the Lambda Award-winning Sky Lounge. He teaches at The New School and Columbia University, and edits the poetry section of The Awl. His poems were included in the 2004, 2009, and 2010 editions of Best American Poetry.
Michael Cirelli was born in Providence, RI in 1975. His newest collection, Everyone Loves The Situation (Penmanship Books, 2011), deconstructs MTV’s hit reality show, Jersey Shore, flipping the cultural zeitgeist on its (gelled and sprayed) head. He is also the author of Vacations on the Black Star Line (Hanging Loose Press, 2010), which was named in About.com’s Poetry Picks “Best Books of 2010,” and Lobster with Ol’ Dirty Bastard (Hanging Loose Press, 2008), which was a NY Times bestseller from an independent press and was featured in the “Debut Poets” issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. His work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Hanging Loose, Texas Review, World Literature Today and King Magazine, among others. He is the Executive Director of one of the nation’s largest youth literary arts organization, Urban Word NYC, and has authored two poetry curricula, Poetry Jam (Recorded Books, 2010) and Hip-Hop Poetry & the Classics (Milk Mug, 2004). He has also appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and Brave New Voices. He appears in the 2011 Best American Poetry.
R. Erica Doyle was born in Brooklyn to Trinidadian immigrant parents, and has lived in Washington, DC, Farmington, Connecticut and La Marsa, Tunisia. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Best American Poetry (2001), Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles, Callaloo, Ploughshares, Best Black Women's Erotica, Bum Rush the Page, Bloom, and from the Fishouse, among others. She has received grants and awards from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and the Astraea Lesbian Writers Fund, and was a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellow. She is also a fellow of Cave Canem, and her manuscript, proxy, was a finalist for the 2007 Cave Cavem Poetry Prize, selected by Claudia Rankine. Excerpts from proxy were also published as a Belladonna* chapbook. She received her MFA in Poetry from the New School, and lives in New York City, where she teaches in the NYC public schools and facilitates Tongues Afire: A Creative Writing Workshop for queer women and trans and gender non-conforming people of color.
Elaine Equi is the author of many books including Ripple Effect: New & Selected Poems and most recently, Click and Clone, from Coffee House Press. Her work has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, Poetry, and several editions of Best American Poetry (1989, 1995, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2010) She teaches at New York University and in the MFA programs at The New School and City College.
George Green received an MFA in poetry from The New School and currently teaches poetry courses at Lehman College, CUNY, in the Bronx. His poems have appeared in various journals and in the anthologies Poetry 180; 180 More Poems; The Best American Poetry 2005; The Best American Poetry 2006; Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds; and The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets. In 2011 a selection of his poems will be included in an anthology of six American poets published by the Anvil Press in Great Britain.
Stacey Harwood's essays, poetry, and journalism have appeared or are forthcoming in Michigan Quarterly Review, Lit, Women's Studies Quarterly, Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Saveur, Time Out New York, the Los Angeles Times, Poets.org and elsewhere. She is the managing editor of the Best American Poetry blog and appeared in the 2005 Best American Poetry.
Jennifer Michael Hecht is the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry. She has appeared in two editions of Best American Poetry, 1999 and 2005. Her Doubt: A History (HarperOne, 2003) demonstrates a long, strong history of religious doubt from the origins of written history to the present day, all over the world. Hecht's The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology (Columbia University, 2003), won the Phi Beta Kappa Society's 2004 prestigious Ralph Waldo Emerson Award “for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.” She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Science and European Cultural History from Columbia University in 1995 and now teaches at The New School University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband John, and their two children.
Amy Holman's poem "Man Script" was published on the cover of Literal Latte flanking a photo of a naked woman with henna tattooes and spotted by Robert Bly when he was lunching in The Noho Star. He added it to the 1999 Best American Poetry anthology. Jennifer Michael Hecht posted "1,500 Parakeets Rescued From 2-Room Apartment" ten years later on the Best American Poetry Blog. Other than that, she has a collection, Wrens Fly Through This Opened Window, published in 2010 with Somondoco Press, and a chapbook, Wait For Me, I'm Gone, which won the 2004 Dream Horse Press annual prize. Her poetry has been in Archaeoogy Magazine, American Letters & Commentary, Barrow Street, Failbetter, Gargoyle, The Potomac Review, and in the anthology Token Entry: NYC Subway Poems. She writes, fiction and nonfiction, and is a literary consultant.
David Lehman is a poet, writer, editor, and teacher. He launched The Best American Poetry in 1988 and continues as the series editor of the acclaimed annual anthology. His own books of poetry include When a Woman Loves a Man (2005) and Yeshiva Boys (2009). The most recent of his seven nonfiction books, A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, won the 2010 Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP. Lehman has edited The Oxford Book of American Poetry. He teaches in the graduate writing program at the New School in New York City.
Katha Pollitt, who appeared in the 1991 edition of Best American Poetry, is well known for her wit and her keen sense of both the ridiculous and the sublime. Her "Subject to Debate" column, which debuted in 1995 and which the Washington Post called "the best place to go for original thinking on the left," appears every other week in The Nation; it is frequently reprinted in newspapers across the country. In 2003, "Subject to Debate" won the National Magazine Award for Columns and Commentary. For her poetry, Pollitt has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her 1982 book Antarctic Traveller won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have been published in many magazines and are reprinted in many anthologies, most recently The Oxford Book of American Poetry (2006). Her second collection, The Mind-Body Problem, came out from Random House in 2009. Born in New York City, she has taught poetry at Princeton, Barnard and the 92nd Street Y, and women's studies at the New School University.
Carly Sachs is the author of the steam sequence, winner of the 2006 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Book Prize, and The Why and Later (Deep Cleveland Press, 2007), an anthology of female authored poems about rape and assault. Sachs was awarded an Arts Fellowship at the Drisha Institute in 2007, and her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry 2004, Alimentum, Another Chicago Magazine, PMS, Court Green, and on National Public Radio. She currently lives in New York City and teaches writing and yoga workshops to help victims of trauma. When not writing or teaching yoga, you can find her making everything from martinis to homemade granola.
Jerome Sala’s books of poetry include Spaz Attack, I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent, The Trip, Raw Deal and most recently Look Slimmer Instantly (Soft Skull Press). His poetry and criticism have appeared The Best American Poetry 2005, Pleiades, Conjunctions, Rolling Stone and many others. He has a Ph.D. in American Studies from New York University. His blog is: http://www.espressobongo.typepad.com/
David Shapiro is an American poet, literary critic, and art historian. He has written some twenty volumes of poetry, literary, and art criticism. He was first published at the age of 13, his first book was published when he was just 18, and he was a finalist for the National Book Award at 24. Shapiro is one of the most prolific and important figures of the second generation of the New York School and has appeared in six editions of Best American Poetry.
Matthew Yeager's poems have appeared in Best American Poetry (2005 and 2010), Bat City Review, NY Quarterly, Gulf Coast, and others. His short film "A Big Ball of Foil in a Small NY Apartment," was an official selection at eleven film festivals in 2009-2010, picking up two awards. Other recent accolades include the Barthelme Prize in short prose. He is the co-founder of Chicken Truck Productions and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word features R&B singer/songwriter Candice Anitra and hip hop MC/spoken word artist The MarXman. + 12-slot open mic (open not only to poets and spoken word artists but fiction/nonfiction writers, comedians, monologists, singers, and musicians).
It is also the debut night of our new official host, three-time HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye!
BIOS:
When you hear Candice Anitra sing, it’s easy to understand how a team of all-star music-makers jumped at the opportunity to produce and play for her debut album. Producers Joel Hamilton (credits include Elvis Costello, Mos Def, Billboard #1 Top Heatseeker’s album, "Blakroc") and Scotty Hard (Prince, Louie Vega) teamed with Dub Trio (Macy Gray, Matisyahu, 50 Cent, Common, The Fugees, Tupac), Marika Hughes (Whitney Houston, Carla Kihlstedt), and Soulive, among others, to spotlight the “righteously raspy” soul powerhouse Candice Anitra on her self-written LP, "Bark Then Bite." Referenced by Hamilton as “Tina Turner meets The Beatles,” Anitra’s sound combines sultry and soaring vocals with dub and rock-infused R&B. Since then, reviews of the album have only confirmed the fresh sound and supreme quality that the talent backing her must have anticipated in this rising songstress. She lives in Brooklyn, where she is igniting the soul music scene (rocking stages from Southpaw to SOB's Sol Village and from Public Assembly to Blue Note), and will be recording her sophomore album in early 2011 for summer/fall release. For more info, please visit http://candiceanitra.com/
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The MarXman is a Queens born MC who fell in love with the spoken word in 2001. A decade later he was established as a spoken word artist with stage credits including BET's Lyric Cafe, the Apollo Theater, Planet Hollywood, CBGB's and dozens of lounges, festivals, colleges and universities all over the country. His first hip hop project,"the NeXt: the MiXtape" was released in Spring 2010. The MarXman is a writer with rhythm, fusing melodic harmonies with a unique style of poetic lyricism and confident delivery. He is currently breaking ground on his 1st studio album entitled, "the NeXt Stage" set for a Summer 2011 release. Check out his tracks at http://themarxman.bandcamp.com/
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When: Thursday, March 10, 2011
Where: (Le) Poisson Rouge (downstairs Gallery Bar)
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)
Manhattan, New York City
http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/
Phone: (212) 504-3474
Doors Open: 6:30pm
Cover Charge: $10
Must be 21 years of age or older. Please make sure to bring ID.
Poet Suheir Hammad, making a rare appearance, headlines @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, @ One and One Bar/Restaurant, Nexus Lounge, Manhattan, NYC.
Suheir Hammad, one of the most important voices of our generation, is the author "breaking poems," recipient of a 2009 American Book Award, and the Arab American Book award for Poetry 2009. Her other books are "ZaatarDiva", "Born Palestinian, Born Black" and "Drops of This Story." Her work has been widely anthologized and also adapted for theater. Her produced plays include "Blood Trinity" and "breaking letter(s)," and she wrote the libretto for the multimedia performance "Re-Orientalism." An original writer and performer in the TONY award winning Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, Suheir appears in the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection, "Salt of This Sea." She is the Artist in Residency at the NYU's APA Institute for 2010. http://www.suheirhammad.com/
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new spoken word poetry series that happens every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner.
The Inspired Word Presents PinkSpeak: Breast Cancer Journeys in Poetry & Prose - a fundraiser for the Young Survival Coalition: Young women facing breast cancer together http://www.youngsurvival.org/
Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011
(Le) Poisson Rouge (downstairs Gallery Bar)
158 Bleecker Street (between Thompson and Sullivan)
Manhattan, New York City
Hosted by award-winning actress and former L.A. Law star Jill Eikenberry, a breast cancer survivor herself, and featuring singer and American Idol finalist Anwar Robinson, singer/writer Khadijah Carter, author/poet Pamilla deLeon-Lewis, actress Alice King, award-winning playwright Andrea Lepcio, actress/poet Gha’il Rhodes Benjamin, authors Jane Kelley ("Nature Girl") and Michelle Malavet ("Cancerland and The Other Side of Sick"), actress Shona Tucker, spoken word poet Joanna Hoffman, screenwriter/playwright/producerBarbara Sutton Masry, and three-time Fringenyc award winning performer Cyndi Freeman.
Performance poets Rico Frederick, Joanna Hoffman, and Patricia Smith @ Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word NYC spoken word poetry event, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2011, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Manhattan, NYC.
The Inspired Word spoken word poetry weekly series celebrated its one-year anniversary with an extravaganza that included an all-star lineup of over 20 of the best performance poets in the New York City area - Patricia Smith, Willie Perdomo, Oveous, Vanessa Hidary, Gemineye, Brian Dykstra, Ngoma, Rico Frederick, Bonafide Rojas, Joanna Hoffman, Erica Miriam Fabri with Robin Andre, Jamaal St. John, Tahani Salah, Nathan P., Osagyefo, Jane LeCroy, Simply Rob, Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, Advocate of Wordz, and Eliel Lucero.
This is the last of 10 videos chronicling the night.
It was an epic night.
An unforgettable night.
The Inspired Word is New York City's hottest new poetry/spoken word series, produced by longtime writer/journalist and former Village Voice columnist Mike Geffner and happening every Thursday night in downtown Manhattan.
