The Inspired Word presents spoken word legend Taalam Acey + author John Reed + our amazing 20-slot open mic open to all types of artists (comedians, musicians as well as poets).
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BIOS:
Spoken word legend Taalam Acey, a child of the Newark Rebellion, was raised by a single mother who was a member of the famed writer and activist Amiri Baraka’s community organization. Acey is an independent artist whose work has been featured frequently on TV One and was selected as the original "number one thing you need to know about" on BET's countdown show, "The 5ive." Over the years, BET has featured and aired roughly a half dozen segments featuring Acey. The Newark, NJ native’s poetry has appeared in Essence Magazine, and Susan Taylor, the magazine’s Editor Emeritus, personally invited him to perform for an audience of six thousand at The Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
Acey was selected as the initial presenter for the inaugural Baltimore TEDx. He was also the curator of the 2011 Sacred Circle Cafe at New Jersey's most prestigious theater, the NJ Performing Arts Center. He was honored to be a guest of Congresswoman Maxine Waters for the Congressional Black Caucus' 2007 & 2008 "Young Gifted and Black" panels. He has shared his work in several countries and approximately one hundred schools of higher education; including the esteemed Graduate School of Education at UC Berkeley, where he delivered a lecture on contemporary Spoken Word. He is currently curating an event called "Sacred Circle Cafe" for the upcoming 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival.
He has recorded fifteen CDs and authored four books. Additionally, films that include his work have garnered an Audience Award (2002) and a Special Jury Prize (2006) at the Sundance Film Festival. He was featured in an acclaimed Radio-One London slam poetry documentary and Marc Smith, the founder of slam poetry, used Acey's work in his definitive book. He currently resides in Sacramento, California
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John Reed is the author of the following novels: A Still Small Voice (Delacorte Press), The Whole (MTV / Simon & Schuster), the SPD bestseller, Snowball's Chance (Roof Books, forthcoming 2012 in a tenth anniversary edition from Melville House), All The World's A Grave: A New Play By William Shakespeare (Penguin / Plume), and Tales of Woe (MTV Press). He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, is a Senior Editor of the Brooklyn Rail, and has published in (selected): Paper Magazine, Popmatters, the New York Press, Timeout New York, Artforum, Bomb Magazine, Playboy, Art in America, the PEN Poetry Series, the Los Angeles Times, the Believer, the Rumpus, the Daily Beast, the Wall Street Journal. He is a current member of the board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle.
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Produced by: Mike Geffner Presents The Inspired Word
http://inspiredwordnyc.com/
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When: Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012
Where: 116
116 MacDougal Street
(between Bleecker Street and Minetta Lane)
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (917) 703-1512
Doors open for open mic sign-up @ 7pm
Show starts @ 7:30pm
Cover Charge: $10
NO AGE LIMIT.
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