Richard Earls writes and performs poetry and songs on subjects as diverse as love, war, family, death and desperation on the dance floor.A musician and songwriter for four decades, he wrote his first anti-war poems five years ago after an encounter with an ex-GI begging on Market Street in San Francisco. This unforgettable experience opened the flood-gates and he is now a regular on the folk and spoken word circuit in the UK at venues such as Songs from Below at the Fiddler’s Elbow, Camden; Hush Hush, in Brighton; The Big Untidy at the Rising Sun Arts Centre,

Reading;  and the Frome Festival.Holding up a mirror to this dangerous and daunting world, Richard takes to task the crooks, marketeers, broadcasters and warmongers who are running the show, and exhorts his listeners and readers to use their vote wisely and treat one another more kindly.

Open Secret! An innovative open mic every Wednesday @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 5è Paris. At 8:30, all-night sign-up starts, & 9 the show…Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). With special guest poet is Lisa Ducasse! And the theme was inspired by her poem, “Silence has fallen on Paris night,” which concerns November’s attacks. She will be accompanied by master saxophonist Evan Laflamme…

Lisa Ducasse is a poet born in Mauritius and currently living in Paris. First published at the age of thirteen, and later in Mauritian poetry magazine Point Barre. She is currently working on releasing her first collection of poems, built around the questions of youth and the feelings that shape and make us… us. Her fascination for the former is perhaps best justified by Patti Smith’s interrogation in her novel Just Kids: “Who can know the heart of youth but youth itself?”. And as for feelings… aren’t they, in the end, all we have, all we really have? And isn’t that part of the magic?

Open Secret! Open Mic @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 75005 Paris. At 8:30 all-night sign-up starts, & at 9 the spectacle. Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4).
Andrew Sweeny is a Canadian-born teacher, writer, musician, meditator, amateur philosopher, and poetic adventurer living in Versailles, France. He has spent the last years teaching at several Paris universities, writing and recording songs, scribbling poems, short stories and various unclassifiable literary. experiments. https://medium.com/@andrewpgsweeny
Carla Drysdale’s first full-length collection of poems, Little Venus, was published in 2009 by Tightrope Books in Toronto. Her first chapbook of poems, Inheritance, from Finishing Line Press came out in 2016. Her poems have appeared in such publications as Paris Press’s Spiraling, PRISM, the Literary Review of Canada & others. In 2014 she was awarded PRISM’s Earle Birney poetry prize. She is currently working on a novel. http://www.carladrysdale.com/

Launch event: 8pm Monday 3rd October at SpokenWord, au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 métro Parmentier/Couronnes

Pre-order copies now by sending 12 euros to paypal associated with the email themag.paris@gmail.com

More info to follow soon.

Open Secret! Wednesdays (2nite!) @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais in Paris’ “Amor vincit omnia” quarter. At 8:30pm, open mic sign-up lights up like a Roman candle, & at 9pm, art explodes! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Innovations in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & dancing queenery! Join the celebration!

Tonight’s theme is “Calling all troubadours!” (But yes, any & all performers are welcome). What the heck does this Leo clown mean by this shout-out to music types? Lemme take a moment to ask him…OK? OK. Is music the universal language? (Or am I confusing that with math, or with wildly gesticulating with your hands?) Is it older than cave art? Dunno. Maybe drumming is. But music certainly uplifts us, non? Come have some fun!

Gowri K is a Tamil American poet, performing artist, teaching artist, and lawyer whose family immigrated to the U.S. from Sri Lanka. Her advocacy has addressed animal welfare, the environment, the rights of prisoners and the criminally accused in the U.S., and justice and accountability in Sri Lanka. Her publication credits include two peer-reviewed scientific journa articles and poetry appearing in Drunk In A Midnight Choir, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Bourgeon, Lantern Review, and Washington City Paper. She was a member of DC’s 2010 Southern Fried Slam team and has performed at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage (in 2013 and 2010), Capital Fringe Festival, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company events co-sponsored by the Poets and Writers Readings/Workshops programs. At the 2014 Atlas Intersections Festival,she produced and performed in “Yasmeen,” an original work co-written and co-produced by Huda Asfour, a Palestinian composer and musician.
She is a 2016 Kundiman fellow and serves as poetry coordinator at BloomBars, a poetry events host at Busboys and Poets, senior poetry editor at Jaggery: A DesiLit Arts and Literature Journal, and co-editor of Beltway Poety Quaterly:

Open Secret! Wednesdays @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (a secret passage that Tinder-dates both Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange – look for the Franprix-in-the-alley) 75005 Paris. 8:30 open mic sign-up buds, & at 9pm it blooms crazily as angel-headed sunflowers! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Innovations in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & dance, eeeeeven – strut yer proverbial stuff!

Our theme this week, inspired by our featured poet Raluca Petrescu’s fine, poignant, & masterful work, is “Words About Silence.” Her words acknowledge the presence of great poets of the past, from the classics to the moderns to more contemporary verse, but she creates a world of her own. Thought-provoking & inventive, she recites with the strong emphasis of an actor…with the driving force of sincere self-revelation, as well as honoring the power of silence. This is an event that if you miss, you may grow raaather sad about dat 😦 so come on over to Le Bistrot des Artistes for our warm weekly gathering!