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.
The Inspired Word presents a hot night of sexy fun, lip-licking words, and utter debauchery – Titillating Tongues: NYC Erotica in Poetry & Prose, featuring our 20-slot open mic (6 minutes each) open to all types of artists, where you can bring your own heat to the party. Hosted by the fiery redheaded poet Aimee Herman and in the elegantly sexy Gallery at LPR (Le Poisson Rouge).
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When: Friday, Nov. 16, 2012
Where: The Gallery at LPR (Le Poisson Rouge)
158 Bleecker Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 353-3474
(917) 703-1512
By subway, take the A, B, C, D, E, F to West 4th Street-Washington Square.
Doors open for sign-up @ 7pm.
Cover Charge: $10
21+ Age Limit!
Produced by Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word
The Inspired Word presents a hot night of sexy fun, lip-licking words, and utter debauchery – Titillating Tongues: NYC Erotica in Poetry & Prose, featuring some of New York City's best erotica writers - Sam J. Miller, Audacia Ray, Richard Berkowitz, Rev Jen, Mo Beasley, and L.Z. Hansen. +12-slot open mic open to all types of artists, where you can bring your own heat to the party.
Hosted by the very sexy Aimee Herman.
And in hottest club in Greenwich Village - (le) poisson rouge!
*****
When: Monday, Jan. 9, 2012
Where: (Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street
Downstairs Gallery Bar
Manhattan, NY 10012
Phone: (917) 703-1512
Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm, show starts @ 7pm
Cover Charge: $10
MUST BE 21 YEARS OLD OR OLDER!
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FEATURE BIOS:
Mo Beasley is an award-winning performance poet and storyteller. He is also a sexuality educator, author, and public speaker. He has successfully integrated his love of performing with his love of education and community building. In the fields of sexuality, race, manhood, and arts advocacy, he has over 20 years experience as a stage performer, teaching artist, workshop facilitator, consultant, activist, and mentor to youth. Mo Beasley’s presentations range from cutting-edge perspectives on sex, sexuality, to art as action, fatherhood and family building, hip hop as a tool for education, to re-defining masculinity for the 21st century.
Richard Berkowitz is the subject of Daryl Wein's 2009 documentary, SEX POSITIVE, which tells his story: coming out as a gay man in the 1970s, becoming a sex worker in NYC at the peak of the sexual revolution, and how that led to his involvement in the invention of safe sex (for AIDS.) In May 1983, Berkowitz co-authored How to Have Sex in an Epidemic, along with Dr. Joseph Sonnabend and activist Michael Callen. Their 40-page booklet is widely regarded as the invention of safe sex as we know it today. He majored in journalism at Rutgers University, where he used his position as the Film editor of the school newspaper to promote LGBT and feminist arts and activism. He spent two decades writing to promote safe sex, culminating in his 2003 memoir, "Stayin Alive: The Invention of Safe Sex, A Personal History." That book became the inspiration for SEX POSITIVE, which won the Grand Jury prize for Best Documentary at Outfest.
Rev Jen is an art star, author, troll museum curator, columnist, guru, open mike host, ambassador to the otherworld, underground movie star, Voice of the Downtrodden and Tired and Patron Saint of the Uncool. I was born on the same day as Zelda Fitzgerald and Amelia Earhart. I want to conquer the world while simultaneously inhabiting an imaginary one. She published a book with Soft Skull Press called Live Nude Elf, and also writes and stars in a live show called Reverend Jen's Really Cool Neighborhood, which was voted "Best Off-Off-Off Broadway Musical Comedy Theater" by the Village Voice.
Audacia Ray is a former sex worker and current media maker. She has blogged about sexuality, culture, and politics since 2004 -including stints blogging for Fleshbot and the Village Voice - and spent three years as an executive editor at the Utne Reader award-winning $pread magazine. She is the author of Naked on the Internet: Hookups, Downloads, and Cashing In on Internet Sexplorationand won a Feminist Porn Award for her film The Bi Apple. These days, Audacia is the director of the Red Umbrella Project, which amplifies the voices of people in the sex trade through live storytelling events, media training, and advocacy workshops. Her monthly storytelling series the Red Umbrella Diaries and her blog Waking Vixen were named to the Village Voice’s Best of 2010 list. Learn more about her work at http://www.redumbrellaproject.org/ and http://www.audaciaray.com/.
Sam J Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has been published in The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Arts & Letters, West Branch, Washington Square, and The Rumpus, as well as anthologies like Best Gay Erotica 2006 & 2008. He's the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, forthcoming from the University of Texas Press. For more info, please visit http://samjmiller.com/.
L.Z. Hansen, known to friends as Zoe, ran from a comfortable upbringing in London, England to NYC in 1984. She worked as a hair stylist to the fabulous, an escort, brothel ho, street walker, jerk off technician, & owner of her own NYC brothels, & a clothing store called Jezebella. Currently she’s a writer, of many short stories, and is working on a novel about love, sex & NYC. Producer of a new reality show “Housewives of the East Village” (in the works), she’s an unabashed lover of filth and the written word, likes to talk to the dead, and strives for purity. She still resides in the East Village with her family. For more info, please visit http://www.lzhansen.com.
The Inspired Word presents a hot night of sexy fun, lip-licking words, and utter debauchery – Titillating Tongues: NYC Erotica in Poetry & Prose, featuring some of New York City's best erotic writers: Rachel Kramer Bussel, Janice Erlbaum, Uche Nduka, Jennifer Blowdryer, Aimee Herman, Kathleen Warnock, Puma Perl, Elizabeth Rivera De Garcia, Jane LeCroy, and Sam J. Miller.
There will also be a 12-slot open mic open to all types of artists, where you can bring your own heat to the party.
Hosted by HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye.
*****
When: Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011
Where: One and One Bar & Restaurant (downstairs Nexus Lounge)
76 East 1st Street (corner of 1st Avenue)
Manhattan, NYC
Phone:(917) 703-1512
Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm
Show starts @ 7pm
Cover Charge: $10
Must be 21 years old or older.
"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."
*****
And please join us for our Tuesday Night Open Mic Joint - same time, same place.
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FEATURE BIOS (in alphabetical order):
In 1988, Ms. Jennifer Blowdryer founded Smut Fests, a show that mixed sex workers performing their own material, however they saw fit, along with some burlesque, spoken word, and other ephemera. She took it on the road to London, Chicago, Hamburg, and Baltimore, Maryland. London was the most crazily good show, but Hamburg's red light district offered the best theater on earth, the Schmidt Tivoli. JB's currently working on a documentary called The 86ed Project, and an ebook called The Bitchez Guide to the Lower East Side. She resides on East 2nd Street, which is still Sport Bar free. For more info, please visit http://blog.jenniferblowdryer.com/.
Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and event organizer. She is the editor of 40 anthologies, including Women in Lust, Obsessed, Orgasmic, Gotta Have It, Fast Girls, Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Spanked, Bottoms Up, and more. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and writes a sex column for SexIs Magazine. She writes widely about sex, dating, books and pop culture, and blogs at Lusty Lady (http://lustylady.blogspot.com/) and Cupcakes Take the Cake (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com/). For more info, please visit http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com/.
Janice Erlbaum is the author of Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir (Villard, March ’06), and Have You Found Her: A Memoir (Villard, Feb. ’08). A founding member of the now defunct performance collective Pussy Poets, her poetry and prose has been featured in anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, The Bust Guide To The New Girl Order, The Best American Erotic Poems From 1800 To The Present, The Autobiographer’s Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir, and Verses That Hurt: Pleasure and Pain from the Poemfone Poets.
Nicknamed SoulSistaRican (by artist/activist Earline Fisher) and Lovely Liz (by host Angel G of The Nuevo Latino Radio Show when sharing her erotic poetry), Elizabeth Rivera de Garcia is a poet, spoken word artist, actor and founder of MyPeopleProductions. She made her poetic debut at The Nuyorican Poet’s Café in Lady l for Banana Puddin’ Jazz and was invited again for Lady ll. Elizabeth has collaborated with Jazz singer Rome Neal for The Brooklyn Jazz Festival and has performed with Jazz Mojo at The Bowery Wine Co. She featured for Heaven on the Hudson at The Hudson River Café and is currently a resident poet of La Familia and company member of The Haiku Empire.
Aimee Herman, a queer performative poet, has been featured at various New York venues such as the Happy Ending Lounge, Dixon Place, Wow Café Theatre, Public Assembly, and Sidewalk Café. She has performed at reading/performance series such as: In the Flesh erotic salon, Hyper Gender, Sideshow: Queer Literary Carnival, and Red Umbrella Diaries. Her poetry can be found in Clean Sheets, Cliterature Journal, Pregnant Moon Review, InStereo Press, and/or journal, and Polari Journal. She can also be read in Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices, hell strung and crooked (Uphook Press), Best Women’s Erotica 2010 (Cleis Press), Best Lesbian Love Stories 2010 (Alyson Books), Nice Girls, Naughty Sex (Seal), and the upcoming Women in Lust (Cleis). She currently works as an erotica editor for Oysters & Chocolate. She can be found writing poems on her body in Brooklyn. Find her @ http://aimeeherman.wordpress.com/.
Jane LeCroy is a poet and performance artist, home-birthing mother of three, teacher, atheist, vegetarian, hedonist, who fronts the avant-pop band Transmitting with Tom Abbs. Her last book of poetry, “Names” was published by Booklyn (no “R”) as part of the award winning ABC Chapbook series. Her work has appeared in many publications including: Mudfish, Frank 151, Vector, and Teachers & Writers Magazine. LeCroy's last CD, Transmitting "Dark and Full of Life” was released on the European label, Delphy Records. She is a teaching artist working in New York schools through Teachers & Writers Collaborative, Global Writes and DreamYard, she does literacy advocacy through Read To Me. LeCroy has many books and recordings available at www.janelecroy.com where you can request to be put on her e list and receive free poems hot off her brain with every show invite.
Sam J. Miller is a writer and a community organizer. His work has been published in The Minnesota Review, Fiction International, Arts & Letters, West Branch, Washington Square, and The Rumpus, as well as anthologies like Best Gay Erotica 2006 & 2008. He's the co-editor of Horror After 9/11, forthcoming from the University of Texas Press. For more info, please visit http://samjmiller.com/.
Born and raised in Nigeria, Uche Nduka is a collagist, eroticist, and songwriter. He is the author of eight books of poems and winner of the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize in 1997. Some of his writings have been translated into German, Dutch, Romanian, Serbo-Croat, and French. He currently lives - and writes constantly - in New York City.
Puma Perl is a poet and fiction writer, producer, and performance artist who believes strongly in the transformative power of the creative arts. Her work has been published in over 100 print and online journals and anthologies. Her first chapbook, Belinda and Her Friends was awarded the Erbacce Press 2009 Poetry Award; a full length collection, knuckle tattoos, was published in 2010. She lives on the Lower East Side and has facilitated writing workshops in community based agencies and at Riker’s Island, a NYC prison. She is a founding member of DDAY Productions, and curates monthly shows at the Bowery Poetry Club.
Kathleen Warnock is series editor for Best Lesbian Erotica. Her own erotica has appeared in BLE, A Woman's Touch, Friction 7, and Best Lesbian Romance. She curates the reading series Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB Bar the third Thursday of every month (since 2004). For more info, please visit http://www.kathleenwarnock.com/.
