SpokenWord Paris

Carl Watson is a poet, fiction writer, playwright and critic. He currently splits his time between NYC and an old barn in the Catskill Mountains. He is the author of several books of fiction including, Backwards the Drowned Go Dreaming (Sensitive Skin Books) and Idylls of Complicity (Spuyten Duyvil).  His poetry collections include Anarcadium Pan (Erie Street Press), Astral Botanica (Fly By Night Press), and most recently, Pareidolia, published by Autonomedia.  He has had work various journals including The Village Voice, NY Press, The Williamsburg Observer, Sensitive Skin, The Brooklyn Rail, Evergreen Review, Degraphe, La Liberation and others. Watson received the Kathy Acker Award for Fiction in 2012. The novel Hotel des acts irrevocables (Gallimard) and the short story collections Sous l’empire des oiseaux, la vie psychosomatique, and Hank Stone et le coeur de craie (vagabonde) have been published by Editions Vagabonde which has also just published the novel A contre-courant rêvent les noyés.

Poet/prophet, Louise Fazackerley, follows Orwell, bringing her Glass Arc Tour from Wigan to Paris. Fresh from supporting punk legend Dr. John Cooper Clark, with work rooted in word-witchery and the working class, Louise is exploring the synergy between poetry and movement in a way that makes the ugly beautiful and the mundane fantastical.  Winner of BBC Radio 3 ‘New Voices’ and European Slam Finalist, Louise is excited to share her new genre-distorting, darkly humorous dystopian book ‘The Lolitas’ published with Verve Poetry Press.  Louise also has two collections with spoken word label ‘Nymphs & Thugs.’ As seen on BBC1 and read in The Guardian.

Cecilia Llompart is the author of The Wingless (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2014), and her book-length poem, Wild Vespers, was a semi-finalist for the Fall 2017 Black Lawrence Press Chapbook Competition as well as a finalist for Verse Journal’s 2016 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. She holds an MFA from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow, and has also been awarded a fellowship from The Dickinson House, named one of two finalists for The Field Office Agency’s 2016 Postcard Prize in poetry, and one of ten winners in Neat Streets Miami’s “Growing Green Bus Stop” Haiku Contest. In addition to appearing widely in journals and anthologies, her work has been translated into three languages. In 2015, she founded the New Wanderers Collective, a multilingual and nomadic poetry initiative, and in 2016 she moved to Paris, where she teaches English Lit. and translates poetry from both French and Spanish.

Matt Jones is a Veteran and storyteller who has published prose and poetry in Arc, F(r)iction, and other places. He runs a monthly writing workshop at Shakespeare and Company, and edits prose for Paris Lit Up Magazine. Today, Matt is enjoying the Parisian literary community, and has just written a book about drones.  You can follow him at matthewjamesjones.com

photo credit: Sabine Dundure Photography

Regie Cabico is a spoken word pioneer having won The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam and taking top prizes in three National Poetry Slams. Television credits include 2 seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, Tedx Talks, NPR’s Snap Judgement & MTV’s Free Your Mind. His work appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution & The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He has been on faculty at Kundiman, Banff Arts Center and NYU Asian Pacific Studies Artist in Residence. Mr. Cabico received the 2006 Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers for his work teaching youth at Bellevue Hospital. The Kenyon Review named RegieCabico the “Lady Gaga of Poetry” and has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and through Howard Zinn’s Portraits Project at NYU, has performed with Stanley Tucci, Jesse Eisenberg & Lupe Fiasco. He is publisher of Capturing Fire Press and producer of Capturing Fire Slam in Washington, DC.

Malik Ameer Crumpler is a poet, rapper, composer, music producer & editor that’s released several albums, glitch art films, five poetry books & one book of raps. He’s a poetry editor/ co-host with Paris Lit Up,  editor-at-large of The Opiate & co-founder of Those That This. Malik has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from L.I.U. Brooklyn. He is also the M.C. for Hip Hop group, Madison Washington on Def Pressé. Beneath The Underground: Collected Raps 2000- 2018 is Malik’s most recent book & ((((FACTS))))) is Madison Washington’s album. http://malikameer.com/

Mary McColley is a writer and poet from Maine, currently studying history and languages in Paris. She studies in corners of various museums and wanders the streets at odd hours, as well as drawing and writing copiously. She worked at a lobster company in Maine and deeply loves the ocean. Mary is fascinated by languages and migrations. Find more of her work at https://troislapins.weebly.com/.

Lisa Ducasse is a spoken word artist, singer and songwriter from Mauritius now living in Paris. She released her first poetry collection, Midnight Sunburn, in April 2017, and her first EP, Louvoie, in September 2018. She writes in French and in English, her two native languages, and her work mostly stems from and builds around the – sometimes lived, sometimes imagined – life of a traveler and the various homes one finds through encounters, moments, and in places all around the world. Her songs recently caught the attention of French singer Zazie, for whom she opened at the Olympia in November 2019. Her second poetry collection, called House of Sometimes, is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2020.

photo credit–Frederick Petit

                  Richard Earls writes and performs poetry and songs on the UK and Paris spoken word circuit on subjects as diverse as love, war, family, death and desperation on the dance floor. A musician and songwriter for four decades, he was involved in the mid-80s UK jazz/pop scene (CBS LP Compilation, Get Wise and Virgin/Paladin release Pull Me UP). Following his conspicuous lack of success as a pop star, he moved to France to bring up his family with his wife, Deby. Years later, a chance encounter with a homeless GI, begging on Market Street, San Francisco provided what the French call a ‘déclic’ which resulted in a flood of poems and songs which would become his Older Wiser Harder collection. Richard is now a regular at venues such as The Poetry Cafe, Talking Rhythm, Rags and Tatters, Paris Lit Up, Spoken Word Paris, Rhyme and Reason, Listen Softly London and 1000 Monkeys. At Spoken Word Paris in January his set will include a reprise of his first epic poem, Mairead Aigneis, 21st Century Warrior Queen, which was received so warmly at Write Up! Speak Up! at the Wells Festival of Literature in October. He will also be performing work from his slim volume of poems, The Bonfire.