The Inspired Word presents two amazing and amazingly diverse spoken word poets, Joanna Hoffman and Dean El Negro, plus special guest poet Rex Weiner (in from Hollywood, Calif.) and our awesome 15-slot open mic open to all types of artists (comedians, musicians, storytellers, fiction/nonfiction writers, as well as poets and spoken word artists).
Hosted by HBO Def Poetry star Gemineye.
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BIOS:
Joanna Hoffman is a spoken word poet originally from Silver Spring, MD and now living in Brooklyn. She has been on three DC/Baltimore National Poetry Slam teams. In 2006, her team performed on Finals stage and ranked 4th in the nation. In 2007, she was the DC/Baltimore Grand Slam Champion and the Individual World Poetry Slam representative for Baltimore. Since relocating to New York for grad school, she has joined the Spoken World Almanac Project and featured at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Most recently, she represented the Bowery Poetry Club at the 2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam, where she performed on Finals stage and placed 9th overall out of over 70 poets. She was also a member of the 2011 Urbana Slam Team, which placed in the top 10 out of 72 teams at the National Poetry Slam, and was also the Urbana 2011 representative for the Individual World Poetry Slam, where she performed on finals stage and ranked 10th out of 72 poets. She has been published in Spindle and as part of the recent GirlChild Press anthology, Women's Work and the Jewish lesbian poetry anthology Milk and Honey. When not performing poetry, she works at a non-profit organization and runs in Prospect Park. For more info, check out her website @
http://joannahoffman.wordpress.com/.
Spoken word poet Dean El Negro, of the Bronx, has become one of the most dynamic voices on the New York City poetry scene , performing with great passion – often about the duality of love and hate - at such venues as The Inspired Word, The Bowery Poetry Club, and The Nuyorican Poets Café. He attained his GED and started writing poetry while a teen inmate on Riker’s Island, where he became a student of the Manhattan Theater Club’s “Writers On The Edge” program, which assisted him in writing his play “Choices.” Upon being released from Riker’s, he matriculated at Bronx Community College as a Fine Arts major and shortly thereafter was elected Student Government Vice-President. Over the years, he has continued to maintain a relationship with MTC as a spokesperson during its fundraisers and, as an Education Counselor for Laguardia Community College’s “Cuny Catch” program, has made frequent visits to Riker’s to speak with incarcerated adolescents. His abilities as a public speaker eventually landed him a job in Bronx politics and for five years he recruited and organized volunteers for electoral campaigns and community based issues. He’s still working on honing his craft and finding the depth of his voice.
Rex Weiner is a journalist, poet and screenwriter based in Los Angeles and Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. Co-founder and publisher of the notorious New York Ace newspaper (1971–73) and according to his FBI file a founding member of the editorial staff of High Times Magazine, Weiner’s feature articles have appeared over the years in Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, The New Yorker, New York Observer and LA Weekly. He is currently West Coast Correspondent for the Jewish Daily Forward and writes regularly for Rolling Stone Italia--you wanna make something of it? Weiner's produced film credits include The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, based o¬n his original stories, starring Andrew Dice Clay and directed by Renny Harlin for 20th Century Fox, and was one of the first writers hired to create the TV series Miami Vice. He co-authored The Woodstock Census (Viking), one of the essential texts on the Sixties. His poems have been published in “Tales For The Son Of My Unborn Child” by Thomas Farber (Dutton), “Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts” compilation by Daniel Yaryan, and is a repeat offender at L.A.’s Poetry In Motion series.
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When: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012
Where: 116
116 MacDougal Street
(between Bleecker Street and Minetta Lane)
Downstairs Lounge
Manhattan, NY 10012
(212) 254-9996
(917) 703-1512
By subway, take the A, B, C, D, E, F to West 4th Street-Washington Square.
Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 6:30pm
Show starts @ 7pm
Cover Charge: $10
NO AGE LIMIT.
"The Inspired Word isn't just a series, it's a movement."
http://inspiredwordnyc.com/
