‘Rhythmatic Wordplay’ from SpokenWord guest Cha’ves Jamall June 6th—Monday’s Theme: Finding Truth

1464697118425 (1)Cha’ves (Shah-Vez) Jamall is a New York -based conceptual artist and poet who uses several mediums including visual art, movement, and melodic spoken word to further conversations around; mental health, racial inequality, and gender roles. Currently he is working on his first solo project entitled ‘Banter’ in which he fuses soulful melodies with what he’s calls ‘rhythmatic wordplay’. His work has been featured on Afropunk, The  LunchBx and has performed in several New York institutions including The Bitter End.

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Open Secret, tonight, “Opening the book of madness.” Featuring poet & publisher Will Cox, & a surprise bit of blues!

will cox BPP2

Tonight & all eternal Wednesdays @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (but all languages welcome!) in Paris’ Latin Quarter.  A passageway just off of Boulevard Saint Germain – look for the Franprix-in-the-alley! 🙂  Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4).  At 8:30pm, rolling sign-up blasts off – at 9 it enters into orbit!

Our theme this Wednesday shall be “Opening the book of madness.” 😉  Featuring special guest poet Will Cox, powerful writer & co-editor of the Belleville Park Pages.

Will’s bio:

I am from Portland but also kinda from Boston, Paris, New York and London.  I run a magazine called the Belleville Park Pages.  I have had work published and done readings around Europe, my favorite place being Lithuania.  I like baseball.  Http://www.bellevilleparkpages.com/

See you @ the Bistrot!

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UK Slam Champion Guests at SpokenWord May 23rd ! Monday’s Theme: Labels and Misconceptions

13271720_10153544137106301_239901504_oRachel (RayNwoks) Nwokoro, the current UK SLAM! Champion, is a young black female poet born and bred in London. She has been performing spoken word poetry for just a year and a half at different venues in the UK and this is her second time performing at Spoken Word Paris. She began circling the Open Mic circuit in a bid to curtail her crippling anxiety and was baffled and warmed by the positive responses she received for her performances. After winning several slam competitions and securing professional feature slots, Rachel has steadily grown in confidence and is grateful towards people who listen to all the rambling words she scribbles. She mostly writes in a bid to understand things that she doesn’t, to encourage awareness and dialogue about important issues and because… she simply, really loves it.  Find her easily online as RayNwoks. If you enjoy her poetry, her YouTube channel is available here –
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Open Secret, tonight, “Poetry is the passionate pursuit of the real.” (-Czeslaw Milosz) featuring Brandon Williamson!

Brandon Williamson

Open Secret this Wednesday features Brandon Williamson. Also a mini-set from Miguel Justice. . .Theme – “Poetry is the passionate pursuit of the real.”

8:30pm sign-up, 9pm show, at Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais, 75005, Paris. Metro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Welcome!

Brandon Williamson is the founder and creator of the internationally recognized Pure Ink Poetry Slam in Buffalo, NY.  He trained and led his slam team to become Empire State and International poetry slam champions, while using his theater skills to win multiple poetry slams throughout North America.  He was a featured performer in the 2014 production of Dwayne Morgan’s When Brothers Speak – the largest and longest running poetry concert of its type in North America. Brandon and his Pure Ink Poetry slam team are 2 time QEW International Poetry Slam champions.  Brandon self produced a CD titled “The Morning After[math]” and recently published “Critical Lens,” a book presenting a poet’s view of the world around him.

Pure Ink’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG_-CyqZipMfR3Kv8w1X9oQ

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Monday May 16th, SpokenWord presents Helen O’Keeffe and Antony Apostolov in ‘Holey Tuscany’

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Holey Tuscany is a brief maritime tragedy about mammalian existential angst, the trials of conjoined siblingship, and ecumenical questions regarding uncomfortable rocks. It was first performed in March 2016 at The Loft Sessions, coordinated by Peter Deaves.
Helen Cusack O’Keeffe is a writer and translator based in Paris. Her fiction publications can be found in the Bastille, Strangers in Paris (Tightrope Press), the 21st Century Bestiary (Stoneskin Press) and Paris Lit Up magazine. Plays include the bilingual Surrealist extravaganza: Napoleon, Femme, Rhinocéros and she co-authored The Terrible Mystery of Ophelia Dupont-Cassé with poetic genius Vincent Chabany. Her costume-maker alter ego, PomPom de la Tour Awfful, is currently working on an immersive adaptation of Le Petit Prince with director Simon Hanukai.
Antony Apostolov is an actor, judicial interpreter, and DotA player extraordinaire. His Napoleon performance in Napoleon, Femme, Rhinocéros was awarded Best Actor prize in the Montmartre Dionysia festival of 2014. Other notable roles have included a poetic river monster and a child trafficker.  
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Trudie Shannon is our guest poet Monday 9th May

Trudie(Theme – Mother Earth)

I’m Guernsey born and bred, a true islander. I have a strong affinity with and a great love and respect for the sea in all its moods and
colours though the sea of the inner world is more to my liking, I’m no sailor!

I am often inspired, moved, by things I hear about people, their lives etc, and to write about people I encounter day to day but never actually meet. I am inspired by strangers or their shadows.

Trudie's paintingWe are affected by others even though we may never share more than momentary eye contact or hear a voice that detaches itself in a throng of people to imprint itself into our memory.

I am now part of a multi-media art collective in Bretagne, Echos music, painting, poetry.
film/photography. I have been in collaboration with Artist Laurent Bonny  here in Bretagne for eight years writing poems in response to his abstract
canvasses and going on to illustrate those same poems myself in my own
pictorial style. I recently published collection of poetry and painting ‘Beside The
Water.’

SpokenWord open mic Monday 9th May au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011, metro Parmentier. Sign up from 8pm, poetics start underground from 9pm.

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April, May, SpokenWord 1, 2, 3 and 4. Through the lens of Sabine Dundure.

April has gone, spring is lost, winter is not dead. These pictures of Sabine Dundure portray the dark light of a basement, some velvet curtains and lots of spokenwanderers who gather there one Monday after another. A birthday song, some happy faces, some ranting and rhyming and we reached 4 open mics par week: Spokenword 1, 2, 3 and 4.

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INFO DUMP: Q&A session for aspiring writers (Sunday May 1st)

UPDATE – We’ll meet in front of Shakespeare & Company then go elsewhere. Shakespeare & Co is unexpectedly closed.

info dump best
The Other Writers’ Group proudly presents:
INFO DUMP: Q&A session for aspiring writers

We all have writing questions about your prose and poetry. Big ones. Small ones.  We’d love to hear yours! INFO DUMP is the place to get tips and tricks that could take your words to another level. Our panel of seasoned artists will field your concerns and tackle the issues by sharing their invaluable experience and opinions. They are here to help you

For this first session, let’s keep the topic a SURPRISE. Ooooooh.
It may be one of these different perspectives. Examples include:
What makes a good title?
Narrative voice?
First person vs third person?
Prose or poetry or both?
Common writing mistakes: Clichés
Likeable protagonist?
When to explain, when to not…
ETC….

Our special panel guests will be Helen Cusack O’Keefe, Peter Brown, Simon Millward and
David Leo Sirois. Your moderator will be Bruce Sherfield.

Here are the essentials:
INFO DUMP@Other Writers’ Group
this Sunday, May 1, 2016
Shakespeare & Company Bookstore
18h30-20h30
Entry is Free
(please come early, 18h15, if you want seats
we only have room for about 40 people in total!)

Can’t wait to see you there,
Cheers
Bruce

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SpokenWord Monday, May 2nd–Jason Stoneking on the “Cosmic Frontier”

Jason in New HavenIn his own words :”Jason Stoneking  is a guy who writes stuff. Mostly poems and essays. He’s been around for a long time. He’s read with so-and-so, and published in the such-and-such. He’s had brushes with fame and brushes with death. An uncomfortable amount of his past can be found on the internet. He recently released a new collection of essays, and he currently spends most of his time in Paris where he can occasionally be found reading his work in the basement of a bar.” www.jasonstoneking.com

 

 

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Open Secret 27th April – with Shehzar Doja

Shehzar DojaOur theme this Wednesday is “Freedom is dancing with both hands in the air!”

Our featured poet is Shehzar Doja, visiting us from Luxembourg.

BIO: Syed Shehzar M. Doja was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and currently resides in Luxembourg as a poet, student, and Founder/Editor-in-Chief of the literary journal, The Luxembourg Review. As a resident of Luxembourg, he was recently selected to represent the country on a pan-European platform for a project commissioned for the city of Amsterdam. His work has appeared in numerous publications worldwide (The San Antonio Review, Fireside International publication, Monsoon Letters, Sticks and Stones) and won several literary and theatrical competitions (1st prize for ‘The Madman’s Lament’ – which he wrote, acted in, & directed – in the Symbiosis Festival, Pune, India) His first book, a collection of his poetry till now, is currently in works for publication due later this year.

See you at the Bistrot des Artistes! 6 rue des Anglais, 75005,Métro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10) or Saint-Michel (line 4). Sign up 8.30pm

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