SpokenWord Paris

Open Secret! Wednesdays @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, in Paris’ 5th hood. 😉 8:30 open mic sign-up rustles “frou-frou” in the branches (envoy a texto to Rimbaud about dat sexy word) & at 9pm it promises gold & green forests! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Your own personal lab for experiments in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & yes, as Rumi wrote, “Dance is silent poetry.” Sheikh yer booty! Dare to live wildly & love truly madly deeply! Our theme: “I always wanted to be famous, mommy!” Featuring musical duo Stanley Forbes (vocal/guitar) & Tony Wrafter (saxophone)…as well as controversial, crazyfunny comedian Regi Barris!

Bio’s:

Stanley Forbes, erstwhile curator of the Anti-Sobriety Variety Show, performs songs of death, light, love, and weapons, accompanied by legendary Bristol saxophonist Tony Wrafter.

Reginald Barris is a biracial, American stand-up comedian living in Vienna, Austria. His unique cultural perspective gives him an interesting take on race and a strong distaste for traditions and conventionality. His twisted sense of humor often dances on the line between acceptable and depraved, but the absurd logic behind his statements is enough to leave you in stitches!

See you 2nite at our infamous Wednesday soirée!

Jonathan Schiffman has established himself as a tolerated presence on the Paris SW stage. Originally from New York City, Jonathan received degrees from Yale and Juilliard, then came to France on a Fulbright Scholarship to study music, wine, psychedelic drugs and plenty of other shit. After his fellowship money ran out (much of it squandered on a single overpriced meal in the 16th arr.), Jonathan served as an assistant conductor to the Orchestre National de France and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Then Jonathan served as Music and Artistic Director of the Orchestra of Avignon where for three seasons he subjected his ever-dwindling public to a strict musical diet of Hindemith, Schoenberg and Philip Glass. After his unexpected firing, Jonathan pursued a freelance conducting career while devoting the remaining 95% of his time to the writing of a novel, or, more precisely, to the mental preparation necessary to one day sit down and write a novel. This novel will possibly be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the fall of 2017. Since 2014, Jonathan has been thrice elected to the SWIC (Spoken Word International Council), a governing body which formulates the rules and guidelines for all official Spoken Word chains and franchises. In addition, Jonathan is the co-founder of SW3 (recently defunct) and SW4 (moribund)

Open Secret! This evening at Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, in Paris’ Latin Quarter. At 8:30pm, rolling open mic sign-up sparks, & at 9 ze fireworks! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). This week featuring startingly original writer Rebecca Holck…Theme: “Eden for sale!” Experiments in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & yes, “we can dance if we want to!” Come shake yer Super Smart Booty! 😉

Bio:
Rebecca Holck’s poetry & stories carry an air of the common disconnectedness in personal relationships, as well as an affair with nothingness. Through powerful language & strong images, stark dialogue & vivid landscapes, her work moves through the territory of what it means to be an individual in society. A Danish citizen of the world, she is also a classical pianist, journalist, & volunteer helper of migrants in her country.

See ya there, gummy bears! 🙂

Photo (c) Sabine Dundure

Open Secret! Wednesdays all August long, & beyond, @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (a secret passage uniting in holy matrimony Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange). 5è Paris. 8:30 open mic sign-up rustles “frou-frou” in the branches, & at 9pm it whirls in the wind like red & gold leaves! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Experiments in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & yes, interpretive dance! Strike a pose…

This Wednesday’s theme is “The Great Forgetters,” or Forgetting, for short. Who in the heck are these great forgetters? We all are. Please see the almost-unbearably hilarious & brilliant Mark Strand poem, “Always,” in this invite, from whence the theme came: https://www.facebook.com/events/574911476022037/

See ya @ Le Bistrot this fine summer eve! 🙂

-David Leo Lego Oreo Ego Frigo Sirois

(Photo copyright Clément Criseo, http://www.clementcriseo.com/)

Open Secret! Wednesdays all summer long @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 5è Paris. 8:30 open mic sign-up buds, & at 9pm it blooms crazily as roadside tiger lilies! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Innovations in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & dance, eeeeeven – strut yer proverbial stuff!

Featured poet Matt Jones has lived to write (poignantly, even exquisitely) about his war experiences in Afghanistan…unforgettable work! You are so welcome to come witness this, & share your own creations as well!

Matt’s Bio:
Matt Jones has penned prose and poetry about his experiences in Canada, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, China, and while on a warship. In Ottawa he worked as the artistic director of VERSeFest 2015, and was an editor of In/Words magazine, where he published a chapbook, “White Flowers and Landmines.” In 2014 he won Arc Poetry Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Award for his poem “Wounded Village.” Published in Arc, Scintilla, and Ottawater, among other places, Matt currently writes in Paris.

Open Secret! Wednesdays all summer @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (a teeny-tiny secret passage uniting Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange – look for the Franprix-in-the-alley) 5è Paris. 8:30 rolling open mic sign-up sparks, 9pm – fireworks! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Your own personal lab for experimental writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, dance & more! With featured singer/songwriter Darshana…

Bio:
Darshana, after six years of playing rock music at many venues & festivals in Paris (such as Gala Polytechnique, La Loco, Scène Bastille, & Festival Rock’n’Solex) as the singer and guitarist of the Four Black Taxis, started a new solo career with a completely new energy and repertoire. He is essentially a musician of protest songs in folk music, & has been coached by the music editor of Eddy Mitchell for 4 years. Notable interviews include Fault Mag (http://fault-magazine.com/2011/03/darshana-congreve/ /http://fault-magazine.com/2011/07/darshana/) & the world-renowned INSTITUTE Mag (https://institutemag.com/2012/05/29/darshana-congreve-2/). A new CD – ONE (7 Songs) is coming in October 2016, with the engineer & musicians of Louis Lumière. (Darshana’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT_g4xQkgtxPMbMQJmm34og).

See you at Le Bistrot des Artistes 2nite, friends!

Open Secret! Wednesdays @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 75005 Paris. 8:30 open mic sign-up, 9pm show. Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Experiments in writing, song, comedy, performance art, theater, & dance, eeeeeven – whatever you got cookin’!

We have a double feature this Wednesday: James Berg has been charming & moving & grooving audiences on both sides of the Atlantic for years (hear his SoundCloud here: http://www.soundcloud.com/jamesfromtheusa). . .but we will also have the great good fortune to witness Didier Cornevin’s reinvention of radical (not just for its time) French verse into vibrant song: the works of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine…as well as his strong original songs & dramatic recitations. Wowie Kazowie! J

James’ bio:

Dividing his time between the United States and France, James Berg performs as a poet, storyteller and musician. Often collaborative, his songwriting has been performed and recorded by American folk/rock musicians and was included on Old Shoe’s CD, Family, named by WXRT as best Chicago album of 2013. James’s poetry was most recently published last month in While You Were Waiting by Poems While You Wait in Chicago. His past and upcoming poetry, essays and short fiction are available in Paris at Shakespeare & Company bookshop through Spoken Word Paris and Paris Lit Up publications. Visit jamesfromtheusa.com for more info.

See ya @ the Bistrot!

Open Secret exists at Le Bistrot des Artistes – 6 rue des Anglais, 75005 Paris. A petite passage between Boulevard Saint Germain & rue Lagrange…From Saint Germain, look for the Franprix-in-the-alley! Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). 8:30 sign-up, 9 of the clock rock!
“Poetry is that which is lost in translation?” is our theme-question. Featuring formidable poet/translator Matt Rosen . Also appearing,  the unforgettable singer Cat Rickman. She rocks!

MATT ROSEN is a photographer, writer & translator from London, who studies presently in Paris, and specializes in surrealist poetry. His photos have been published in several magazines, including Stirring: a Literary Collection, and Driftwood Press. He makes every effort to translate works of the surrealist group which have never before appeared in English (like his translations of Breton & Reverdy, in the current issue of Terre à Ciel:http://www.terreaciel.net/). His first play, The Sower Works for Mastery by Turning the Wheel, was featured in the conceptual theatre festival Fourplay.

CAT RICKMAN is a New York-based singer-songwriter, authoress, and poet. Her influences include the jazz greats, various hipster indie queens, and angsty British rock bands. Think, what would happen if Ella sang for the Arctic Monkeys.

The Other Black Girl Collective is a Brooklyn-based black feminist poetry duo comprised of nationally acclaimed award winning authors Angel Nafis and Morgan Parker. Despite popular belief, we are not actually the same person. We aim to celebrate black female expression and sisterhood, honor and highlight the multiplicity of the black female experience, and push against tropes and stereotypes that smother and limit us. Our work, featured in Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, The BreakBeat Poets Anthology, Best American Poetry 2016 and Buzzfeed, is deeply personal and individual, explores 21st century black American womanhood and its complexities: performance, depression, isolation, exoticism, racism, pop culture, femininity, family and politics. With energy, brutal honesty, dark humor, anger and pride, we aim to create a new Black Girl mythology. This is our first international tour of our two woman show If You Are Over Staying Woke.
Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Their 2nd collection, Don’t Call Us Dead, will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. They are also the author of two chapbooks, hands on ya knees  & black movie, winner of the Button Poetry Prize. Their work has published & featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, & Ploughshares. They are a 2014 Ruth Lilly – Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. Danez is a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing 2nd in 2014. They edit for The Offing & is a founding member of 2 collectives, Dark Noise and Sad Boy Supper Club. Danez lives in the midwest most of the time.