Originally from Montreal, poet Lisa Pasold is the author of five critically-acclaimed books. Her work has appeared in publications such as New American Writing, The Globe and Mail and Fence. Lisa is the creator of Improbable Walks, story-telling walks focusing on legends and place memory. She has created these art walks to critical acclaim for festivals and gallery residencies in cities such as New Orleans, Toronto, and Paris.
photo by Louis Maistros
Poet and Zen monk, John High (Ninso) has received fellowships from the National Ednowment of the Arts, the National Endowment of the Humanities, four Fulbright fellowships. He is the author of over a dozen books, including his most recent novel Scrolls of a Temple Sweeper (Wet Cement Press),and a forthcoming co-translation of Osip Mandelstam’s poetry (Wesleyan University Press). A co-founder and former director of LIU Brooklyn’s MFA Program, he has taught at universities in Istanbul, Moscow, Hangzhou, and San Francisco, and facilitated workshops in creative transformation with children, teachers, social workers, incarcerated youth, and writers in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. He has read/performed his work internationally and in Paris for Upstairs at Duroc, Berkeley Books, Paris Lit Up, Spoken Word Paris, and the Ivy Writers Paris series. His daily ensō practice with Zen koans, teachings, and meditations can be found here, and here. Based in Lisbon, he lives with his wife, Andrea Clark Libin, also a writer.
Monday 31st July
at the Cave Café, 134 rue Marcadet, 75018 Métro Lamarck-Caulaincourt (line 12)
Theme: Plastic
Sign up downstairs 8pm. Show begins 8.45pm
Celebrating 6 months at the Cave Café!
Jo’s excellent bilingual poetry documentary about the Spoken Word Paris community, filmed in Spring 2022 at Au Chat Noir bar.
© Jo Black 2023
Diana Norma Szokolyai is a writer, teacher, and Artistic Director of Cambridge Writers’ Workshop, an organization that leads writing retreats in France, Spain, and the US. Her writing appears Critical Romani Studies, The Poetry Miscellany, The Boston Globe, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and MER VOX Quarterly. Her poetry has been anthologized in Other Countries: Contemporary Poets Rewiring History, Stone to Stone: Writing by Romani Women, and Teachers as Writers, as well as translated into German for the anthology of Romani poets from around the world Die Morgendämmerung der Worte, Moderner Poesie–Atlas der Roma und Sinti. She is author of the poetry chapbooks Parallel Sparrows and Roses in the Snow, as well as editor of CREDO: An Anthology of Manifestos & Sourcebook for Creative Writing. In 2021, she was awarded a Center for Arts and Social Justice Fellowship at Vermont College of Fine Arts for her work translating Romani poets into English. Together with Dennis Shafer, she founded ChagallPAC, an interdisciplinary arts organization. She holds an M.A. in French, an Ed.M. in Arts in Education, and an M.F.A. in Writing. She teaches writing at Salem State University. A frequenter of Spoken Word since 2006, she’s thrilled to be back!
Wave or particle, energy or matter, where are you today? Hello my name is John X. Yes, that’s really true. It’s on my passport. I live in Paris France and play the guitar… if you are interested in Guitar Circle or Samba or Cybernetics then corner me politely… if you are looking for Dr Kalozum I can arrange an interview. Otherwise, please indulge me these quelques minutes for more Songs of a Cosmic Nature !
Annie Peter is a Dublin-based writer and spoken word artist renowned for fusing poetry with music, rhythm, and free movement. Her performances strive to move and unsettle audiences. Her work focuses primarily on themes of female empowerment, mental health, and societal challenges. Her aim is often to bring to light the demons locked away in the recesses of the mind. Since her first performance in 2022, Annie’s performances earned her a slot at the Electric Picnic Festival in 2022 and 2023, leading to her fully sold-out headline show, “Poetry and Beats”. In early 2023, she co-founded the Poetry Kiln Collective with David Hynes and Emmet O’Brien. Annie Peter’s work has been published online in The Void Magazine, Dodging the Rain, The Outpost Éire, The Headlight Review, and has appeared in print in Dreich Magazine and The Amphibian.
Devin Cohen Asher/Alien Architect (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a multi-instrumentalist multidisciplinary artist, working with experimental abstract visual art, painting, poetry, sound art. He has written, painted, exhibited, performed, across the U.S., Mexico, Israel, Paris, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Spain, Japan, Hungary, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Argentina, Canada, Poland, India, Turkey…His poetry book is ALL PRAISES and his experimental Alien Architect trip hop post hop poetry album is Arteria .He has attended artist residings in Hungary, Lithuania, Romania…. Mekisko..His work has been selected for the Ibero Biennale de Puebla de Los Ángeles, as well as the Biennale de pintura J.A. Monroy in Mexico; Devin’s work has been exhibited in Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Ateneo de Yucatán MACAY, Centro Estatal de las Artes de Baja California in Tijuana, Centro Cultural Plaza Fatima in Monterrey, Museo UPAEP in Puebla, Museo de la Mujer in Mexico City, as well as the Slought Foundation and Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. Devin Cohen with Rebeca Martell own and curate Liliput Gallery in Puebla, Mexico, and Philiput Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Devin´s art will be exhibited in Merida this Month. Of journey quest, It has been from Leipzig to Berlin to Frankfurt to Paris to perform at Spoken Word Paris mere moments before return´th fluttering from this air of Narnia.
Nancy Stohlman is the author of six books including After the Rapture (2023), Madam Velvet’s Cabaret of Oddities (2018), The Vixen Scream and Other Bible Stories (2014), The Monster Opera (2013), Searching for Suzi: a flash novel (2009), and Going Short: An Invitation to Flash Fiction (2020), winner of the 2021 Reader Views Gold Award and re-released in 2022 as an audiobook. Her work has been anthologized widely, appearing in the Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction and The Best Small Fictions 2019, as well as adapted for both stage and screen. She teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder and holds workshops and retreats around the world. Find out more at http://www.nancystohlman.com
Monalisa Maione is a 2-time Pushcart Prize nominated poet and visual artist. She lives near the ocean on California’s Pacific Coast Highway and makes stained glass panels in anatomical themes and photographs of biological specimens. From her home in Paris 18e, she writes darkly humorous poetry that generally explores power dynamics between institutions and individuals. Monalisa regularly smashes the patriarchy using tiny acts of defiance including outbidding men on eBay for power tools, being very successful in business and never faking her orgasms. Her preferred mode of transportation is her Ducati motorcycle, and she only takes advice from live crows.
SpokenWord Paris 