SpokenWord Paris

Chris Newens is 30 and from Kingston-upon-Thames, UK. A sometime journalist, sometime playwright, before helping to set up Fourplay he was co-founder of its predecessor, The Montmartre Dionysia, and so has been behind the push for more English theatre in Paris for almost four years. His journalism, meanwhile, recently won him the Financial Times/Bodley Head Essay Prize 2016.

Alice Selwyn Brace is 23 and from Kingston-upon-Thames, UK. A journalist and editor for several publications including Louis Vuitton Travel Guides and fashion magazine Wheretoget, she co-founded Fourplay in 2015 after acting in and directing numerous productions around Paris, including for the Montmartre Dionysia and Shakespeare & Co. bookshop.

Open Secret! Your community open mic, every Wednesday @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (but all languages are welcome) in the 5th. Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). At 8pm, nightlong sign-up begins, & at 9 le spectacle commencera! Our featured writer this Wednesday is Jason Stoneking – many of you (& many across the world) know his work well.  (See his bio below).

Our theme this Wednesday shall be “The Waste Land.”

Jason’s bio:
Jason Stoneking is an American essayist, poet, and performance artist based in Paris, France. He has authored two volumes of poetry and four collections of essays, and has performed his art and writing internationally for more than twenty years at venues ranging from the main stage at Lollapalooza to the Pont Neuf in Paris and the rooftops of Cairo. He is currently working on a vaguely defined epistolary project, and trying to pour the universe into a paper bag.

Open Secret! Community open mic, Wednesdays @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais 5è Paris. Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). At 8, nightlong sign-up starts, & at 9, le spectacle starts…Our theme this Wednesday shall be “The Night.” Our very special musical guest, Timo Ji George, wrote a gorgeous song called “Tender is the Night.” If you enjoy sweet melancholia, genius technique, & a truly sincere heart, you will love Timo & his music!

Timo’s bio:
“My heart is such as moss: damp, lively green and very rich in minerals, but constantly in the shadow.” Timo Ji George was born and raised in a red-brick-house in the wild woods of Tuscany. No souls around, just an eternal cycle of dusks and dawns. Timo sings out the friction he feels between the material world of human society and the timeless infinity of the nature that hosts us. His music tries to learn form one of the most extraordinary rules of life: be simple, direct and sincere.  He started to write songs three years ago, after a near-death experience which opened the doors for him to another perspective on Life and on himself. He released his very first album of intimate folk songs in October 2016. The album, called “The black tower of the sea” is available for digital download on the main digital stores and for a free listening experience on Spotify and Deezer. He’s now recording his second work, which will most likely be out in 2017. Website: http://www.timojigeorge.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/­ji.timo/ Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/­channel/­UC8NetRm4mmFx59jk7_bQ­7HQ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/­timo-ji

FB invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/264821900642803/

“Dareka performs his poetry since 2005 in France, then in USA, and everywhere his feet can land on. He is now traveling through France and Europe to satisfy his thirst for poetry. He hosted the popular Paris Poetry venue, “Slam au Downtown”, for two years when he wasn’t rocking the stage with his experimental fusion punk jazz spoken word band, La Bête Aveugle. He got his poem-tales series turned into a play once, hosted a workshop at the USA national poetry slam, another about poetry performance in many schools of Casablanca, represented France at the London Poetry Olympics, rode a horse in Icelandic mountains (unrelated), got his poetry recently displayed in an art gallery in Japan. He often performed his poetry in very strange places, such as a pizzeria in Rio de Janeiro, a church in Hanover, a Sephora make-up shop in the Ardennes forest, on a tennis table in a craft shop turned vegetarian restaurant in Porto, and so on, and yes, he liked it. Just as his life, his poems are metamorphic animals, and he’s a zoo keeper in hell. They are trees and buildings, little skeletons dancing under the moonlight, lonely kids lost in urban mazes, sewing needles stuck in his frail stupid little heart. They are maelstrom of rhymes, soda drinks in a night bar, for a drunken public. They are you, they are him, they are life and death kissing in a blink, but it does not really matters.”

Open Secret – that welcoming, second SpokenWord – every Wednesday at Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 5è. Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). At 8 PM, nightlong signup starts, & at 9 the show…Poetry, music, comedy, theatre, performance art, & dance. This Wednesday’s theme is inspired by a poem of special guest Chris Burke’s – “Write it down dammit!”

Bio:
Chris Burke is an English writer and journalist, whose debut poetry collection, The Noise of Everything at Once, was published by Happy House Books in January. His work has appeared in publications including Antiphon, the French Literary Review, Snakeskin, Prole, the Richmond Review, and Monkey Kettle, and three of his poems were longlisted for the 2014 UK National Poetry Competition. Born in London and raised in Essex, he has also written and consulted on screenplays for film and television.

See you tonight! 🙂

James Jewell is a jack of all trades: poet, rambling man, singer songwriter, filmmaker and sometimes slave to the big system to make a buck. James and his wife Kara have been kind of nomadic wonderers from their home in the hills of Pennsylvania to Nashville, Los Angeles, Toronto and now Paris France. James poems have a strong sense of his Pennsylvania roots while being influenced by the weird and wonderful adventures he and his wife have experienced. James has now been part of the Paris scene for almost six years. Strongly influenced and inspired by the Paris scene he has released “Ships Made of Fake Fur” on Corrupt Press.

Open Secret! That sweet community open mic…Le Bistrot des Artistes is double-booked this week, & I’ve asked many-a-venue to host us, to no avail. So it shall exist in front of Notre Dame (meet me at the door). At 8pm nightlong sign-up begins, & the show is at 9.

Every Wednesday – without fail. Tonight’s theme: “The Importance of Bein’ Crazy!” Dare to make true art as well as live fully…Our crazyfunny & oh-so-smart featured artist this week is Mark Norman Harris (who just held his second Cabaret Voltaire). Hilarious songwriter, poet, painter, & cult leader! 🙂 Bring an “adult beverage” & join us!