SpokenWord Paris

SOPHIA LUCIA is an experimental artist from Chicago. She writes/produces/stars in her one-woman variety show, ‘Freak Show Cabaret,’ which includes (but is not limited to,) her original musical compositions, poetry, performance art, clown, absurdist theatre, burlesque, and improvisation. She is also currently one of the hosts of Spoken Word Paris (have you heard of it?) She has been published in various print & digital magazines, such as Backcombed Magazine, Orange Peel Magazine, The Space In Between Gallery, Juste Millieu, and Cream Scene Carnival Magazine, to name a few. Sophia’s ‘Freak Show Cabaret’ is performed internationally (the next presentation will be at CAVERN CLUB in Paris on February 22) and her music can be found on all streaming platforms. Her next album, ‘?‘ is scheduled to be released in May 2024. Hoot hoot. 

Instagram: @freakshowcabaret

Sue Burge is a freelance creative writing tutor, mentor and editor based in North Norfolk, UK.  Sue’s poems have been published in a wide range of journals and have also featured in themed anthologies on science fiction, modern Gothic, illness, Britishness, endangered birds, WWI and the ongoing pandemic.  In 2016 she received an Arts Council grant which enabled her to write a body of poetry in response to the cinematic and literary legacy of Paris which resulted in her first collection, Lumière.   She has two collections out with Live Canon, In the Kingdom of Shadows and Confetti Dancers.  The latter features a sequence of poems in homage to the loss of a dancer friend to the AIDS pandemic in the 1980s.  The Saltwater Diaries (Hedgehog Poetry Press) was published in 2020 and examines Sue’s ongoing relationship with the sea.  Her next full collection, The Artificial Parisienne, explores the world of the alter ego she left behind in Paris three decades ago and her long, edgy relationship with the city.  It is due out in January 2024 and she is hoping to have it in her hand on 22^nd January! www.sueburge.uk

Youssef Alaoui-Fdili is an Arab-Latino, born in California. His mother is Colombiana. His father was Moroccan. The Alaoui-Fdilis are originally from Fez. His brothers and aunts and uncles and cousins are today mostly in Casablanca and Rabat. His family and heritage are an endless source of inspiration for his varied, dark, spiritual and carnal writings. He has an MFA in Poetics from New College of California. There, he studied Classical Arabic, Spanish Baroque and Contemporary Moroccan poetry. He is also well versed in the most dour and macabre literature of the 19th Century. His poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, 580 Split, Cherry Bleeds, Virgogray Press, Red Fez, Big Bridge, Dusie Press, Paris Lit Up, The Opiate, and nominated for a Pushcart at Full of Crow. Youssef is an original creator of the East Bay literary arts festival “Beast Crawl.” In 2012 he created Paper Press Books & Associates Publishing Company. This press offers several important books of poetry and one poetry and art compendium.

George Wallace (MPH, MFA) is a NYC based poet and spoken word artist with 42 chapbooks, five albums of spoken word poetry streamed worldwide, and an active schedule of appearances in NYC and worldwide, including an appearance in 2023 at the St Augustine Poetry Festival and recent or scheduled appearances at the Medellin Poetry Festival, National Beat Poetry Festival, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, Turrialba Poetry Festival, Boao Poetry Festival, Silk Road International Poetry Festival, Piacenza Biennale, Human Underground, Athens. In France he has previously performed at Shakespeare and Company, and participated in a Camille Claudel workshop at the Avignon Theater Festival. As writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, he is creator of POETS BUILDING BRIDGES, now in its third season, triangulating groups of poets from different regions of the world.

Theme – DRUNK.

Sign up opens 8pm, in the cave. Show starts 8.45pm. Only open mic – no guest – so the first round is entirely available.

First SpokenWord of 2024 will be 8th January.

At la Cave Café, 134 rue Marcadet, 75018 Paris. Métro Lamarck-Caulaincourt, line 12.

photo by Sabine Dundure

Yann Rousselot is a translator, writer, and poet. He grew up in airport lounges and diplomatic enclaves in the company of his brothers, his sister, and countless cheap suitcases, raised across the globe by humanitarian parents. Graduate of the Sorbonne (Language & Literature) and the University of London Institute in Paris (Translation), he is a regular spoken word performer at Au Chat Noir, Culture Rapide, and le Bordel de la Poésie. His work has been featured in Paris Lit Up Magazine, The Bastille magazine, AUP’s Paris/Atlantic Magazine, Thought Catalog, Canopic Jar, Gard Poetry Journal (Turkish), and the Belleville Park Pages. His first collection of poetry, Dawn of the Algorithm, was published by Inkshares in 2015. 

http://www.linktr.ee/yesrousselot

www.linktr.ee

Chiara Maxia is an actress and writer originally from the island of Sardinia, Italy. She has lived in different places including England, Moscow and Paris, where she graduated in Film Acting in 2019. She now lives between France and Italy. Her work has appeared in, among others, Tint Journal, The Opiate, Open Door and Our Verse Magazine.  Her debut poetry collection is expected is to be published by The Opiate Books in 2024. 

The Red Wheelbarrow, 9 rue de Médicis, 75006 Paris. Metro Odéon, RER B Luxembourg, Buses 89,21,27, opposite Jardin Luxembourg, between Café Rostand and Treize Bakery

Jason Stoneking is a poet, diarist, and performer originally from the United States, who has made his home in Paris. He has published several collections of poetry and essays, and has been performing his cosmic philosophical writing and music for more than 25 years, at venues ranging from the main stage at Lollapalooza to the rooftops of Cairo. Recently, his practice has concentrated on the creation of handwritten and site-specific texts. For his Bespoke Books series, he writes an entire unique book by hand, in a single draft, for an individual reader, event, or residency. On November 27th, he will read an original text, written by hand specifically for Spoken Word Paris.

Nina Zivancevic Poet, essayist, fiction writer, playwright, art critic, translator and contributing editor to NY ARTS magazine from Paris, Serbian-born Nina Zivancevic has published 15 books of poetry. She has also written three books of short stories, two novels and a book of essay on Milosh Crnjanski (her doctoral thesis) published in Paris, New York and Belgrade. The recipient of three literary awards, a former assistant and secretary to Allen Ginsberg, she has also edited and participated in numerous anthologies of contemporary world poetry. As editor and correspondent she has contributed to New York Arts Magazine, Modern Painters, American Book Review, East Village Eye, Republique de lettres. She has lectured at Naropa University, New York University, the Harriman Institute and St.John’s University in the U.S., she has taught English language and literature at La Sorbonne ( Paris I and V) and the History of Avant-garde Theatre at Paris 8 University in France and at numerous universities and colleges in Europe.She has actively worked for theatre and radio: 4 of her plays were performed and emitted in the U.S. and Great Britain/ In New York she had worked with the “Living Theatre” and the members of the “Wooster Group”. She lives and works in Paris.