Lisa Pasold guest poet & writer Monday 14th March

Tomorrow’s theme is a good one – Mad as Hell.
Lisa PasoldLisa Pasold is a novelist, journalist and poet. Her most recent book of poetry, Any Bright Horse, was shortlisted for Canada’s Governor General’s Award. Lisa is the host and co-writer of Discovery World’s travel program Paris Next Stop. In the course of research, Lisa has been thrown off a train in Belarus and been cheated in the Venetian gambling halls of Ca’Vendramin Calergi. She is currently writing a long poem about New Orleans.

See you at the Chat Noir.
76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud
Sign up from 8pm. poetics start 8.30pm

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Kind reminder: Open Secret 2nite with comedian/poet Rebecca Larkin!

Yes, this fine evening, the crazyfunny Rebecca Larkin graces our stage! This brilliant Brit is not to be missed. Her bio appears below, after some of my very silly propaganda. (Future features listed at the bottom of this message…)

David Leo Blah-Blah-Blah Sirois sayeth: treat yourself to Open Secret, that infamous, almost-famous open mic, Wednesdays down in the cave @ Le Bistrot des Artistes, 6 rue des Anglais (branching off of Boulevard Saint Germain), in the “Quo vadis, Domine?” quarter. 8:30 in the PM. Metro Maubert-Mutualité (line 10), Saint-Michel (line 4), or by hot air balloon with the Wizard of Oz’ great groovy guidance! 😉

8:30 all-night sign-up blossoms like a crocus in the snows of late winter, & at 9 it gives way to the wild violets of Spring – &, oh yeah, poetry, song, comedy, theater, knitting, public toenail-clipping, gratuitous hair-cutting & more!

“And now for something compleeetely different.” This Wednesday, the theme I satisfyingly microwave-popped is “Choose your parents wisely!”

I like to tease people by asking them, “So, you chose your parents? And your hometown?” Did we? There are some living saints, & some charlatans too (I’ve met several of both species) who say that our souls chose these circumstances before taking birth on Earth. I’m not sure if I believe that, ‘cuz somehow I don’t remember, but I think many of us feel that if we had a choice, we mighta chosen differently. The saints say that we chose as we did so that we would learn exactly what we needed, to proceed toward inner liberation. Believe it or not! I’m still working on that one. I’m just a psychic who works for the police. I actually used to tell people that (it wasn’t true, but I did apply for the job) back when I was weird. 😉

Anyways, here’s Rebecca’s bio:
Rebecca Larkin was born at 1:50 am at some point in the summer of 1991, which probably explains why she always wakes up in the middle of the night when it’s hot. Rebecca has loved France ever since her realisation that health and safety rules here are laxer, and you can therefore slide backwards down the flumes at a waterpark, with your head first and your legs crossed over your chest, and nobody cares or bats an eyelid. It was this experience, and her 48 hour no-sleep-no-food-round trip from London to Paris with a group of Texans, aged 16, which lead Rebecca to come to France to study in 2012. She tried to move back to England but she had been too poisoned against sliced bread and cheddar cheese for this move to be successful. As well as a few thousand hours defending contemporary art and small children from one another, Rebecca has some experience writing poetry, notably her first collection, 1998’s “Green Seas.” Among other works this included ‘The Pink Alien:’ “The Pink Alien loves to bathe in pink and purple bath foam He scrubs and scrubs and then one day He scrubbed his whole nose away” Rebecca writes to try to beat a pathway out of the thorny forest in her mind, and uses humour to remind herself she can peek from the tree-tops sometimes when the woods encroach too much. Rebecca’s parents are both librarians. One of them denies this fact. She looks forward to joining you in a shared twenty minutes which will most likely involve balloons.
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So, lower your hot air balloon into Le Bistrot des Artistes Wednesday nights (tonight!), perform if you like, or just listen with both ears – & perhaps we can all choose our parents for our next incarnation! Ha ha! 🙂

Future featured artists:
16th March: Lisa Ducasse
23rd March: Mitko Gogov
30th March: Matty Dowd
6th April: Lucienne McKirdy
13th April: Jason Stoneking
20th April: Adeline Baldacchino (!)

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Jamika Ajalon – Guest poet Monday 7th March at SpokenWord

Jamika Ajalon is the guest poet next week – and the theme will be REFUGE/REFUGEES.

bio:

JamikaA disciple of the creative, Jamika is as an inter-disciplinary artist who works with different
mediums independently, but also in  multiple  fusions- incorporating written and spoken text, sound/music, and visuals.   A nomad, she grew up in America but has lived for years in Europe, including England, and  France.   During  travels (including countries in Africa) she has met and collaborated with  other artists, academics,  who who challenge ‘frontiers’  (external borders as well as internalised)  and are planting seeds.  A science fiction nerd, Jamika has always looked at ‘space’ as a place to realise and talk about possible futures.  Her publications and performances have been diverse. They include a series of audio-visual anti-lectures which explore memory, and nomadic subjectivity through a “afro-futurist lens.   As she roams, she has had the  good fortune to perform, record, tour , publish and exhibit/screen her work  in Vienna London,  Berlin, South Africa, Senegal,  Kampala, Paris… New project—Jamika & the argonauts…  taking sonic slam into the rhelm of blues flavoured rock, trip hop, electrified.  She will be performing at the  Au Chat Noir on the  25th of March.

Link

 

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Happy birthday Sabine! February is gone and we realize it’s been 3 years with Sabine Dundure as our official photographer…

A February salad of images to celebrate 3 years of Sabine Dundure‘s pictures at SpokenWord Paris and her new record: 4,532 FB views for her last album. If you want more privacy, hide yourself better… (And if you want to travel back in time click here.) And it was also her birthday this week. Happy birthday Sabine!

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Monday February 22nd. The theme is “Actors/Acting” with Frank Klötgen, our guest from Germany.

frankkloetgen_c_uwe_lehmannFrank Klötgen, is a slam poet from Munich and writer of hyperfictions. Singer of the band Marilyn’s Army for more than 25 years and 15 albums. In 1998, his multimedia novel “Die Aaleskorte der Ölig” was awarded with the “Pegasus”, prize of German internet-literature by DIE ZEIT and ARD. The multimedia hyperfiction-novel »Spätwinterhitze« was published in December 2004 on CD-ROM as volume of Beat Suter’s series »edition cyberfiction«. His best slam poetry-texts were published in »Will Kacheln« (book and CD, 2007), followed by the novel “Der Fall Schelling” (book and CD, 2010; both by Voland & Quist publishers). The books “Mehr Kacheln! “, “Kitt!” and “Holz und die 7 Todsünden” assemble his poems, the latest release “Büdchenzauber und Zechenverse” is a mixture of novel and tourist guide, but also contains more than 30 poems. In 2012, he got famous for his book-architecture, when he started building up replicas of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Death Star or the Tay Mahal with his books. He was invited to book fairs in Abu Dhabi and Literature Festivals all over the world to perform wit h his poems and book buildings. He took part in about 2.000 slam competitions and won several prices.

Bibliography:
– Spätwinterhitze (novel, CD-ROM, Verlag Voland & Quist 2004)
– Will Kacheln (slam poetry, book and CD, Verlag Voland & Quist 2007)
– Der Fall Schelling (novel, book and CD, Verlag Voland & Quist 2010)
– Mehr Kacheln! (poems, Hirnpoma.de 2011)
– Kitt! (poems, Hirnpoma.de 2012)
– Büdchenzauber und Zechenverse (novel, conbooks 2013)
– Holz und die 7 Todsünden (poems, Hirnpoma.de 2014)

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Poets Live presents Alberto Rigettini vs Dante Alighieri

Alberto and Dante-bwFrom the series “Whadda Hell ?!?” or “Divine Comedy for Dummies”, a new episode starring Dante Alighieri & Beatrice Portinari, Francesco Petrarca & Laura De Noves, Heloise & Abelard, Queen Guinevere & Sir Lancelot. The pimp of the Poetry Brothel explains why it’s safer to pay for a love poem than to undertake a love story with a poet.  An history of courtly love and literary sins from the 12th Century to nowadays.        Tuesday 16th 7.30 PM at Berkeley Books, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne. 75006 Paris.                    May you all burn in the flames of Hell! More info here.

 

 

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Monday 15th: UNFAIRNESS & PREJUDICE with our guest poet Nicholas Karavatos

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NICHOLAS KARAVATOS is a poet. A graduate of Humboldt State University in Arcata and New College of California in San Francisco, he currently teaches literature & writing at the American University of Sharjah near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Of his 2009 book No Asylum, San Francisco Renaissance poet & musician David Meltzer writes: “Nicholas Karavatos is a poet of great range and clarity. This book is an amazing collectanea of smart sharp political poetry in tandem with astute and tender love lyrics. All of it voiced with an impressive singularity.” Kevin Killian, poet & co-author of the critical biography Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance, writes: “Nicholas Karavatos points out that there is ‘no asylum’ anywhere, in a figurative sense, because even the parts of the world in most opposition to each other are bound up seamlessly in a net of shared reference, sensual pleasure, and invasive, sometimes assertive media. And misunderstanding.  He is a prophet as well as a poet—maybe the canary we’ve sent down the coal-mine.”

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Special Guests on 8th Feb 2016… Carey Downer & Henri Rizk

Our featured guests this Monday  are Carey Downer and Heni Rizk who will be perfoming two Valentine’s stetches for our enjoyment.  The first, ”Déjà Vu” was written by Nick Calder  Bans, and the second, ”To Kiss or Not to Kiss” was written by Carey Downer.

Carey DownerCarey Downer is a British/Canadian actress with a wide range of experience in radio, theatre and music.She has worked with several companies on internal communication projects as a voice over artist for internal videos/ Management interviews and also in general advertising for companies such as l’Oreal and Bull.  She is a founder member of “Break-a-leg”, an English language Theatre Association producing Comedies in Paris by writers such as Willy Russell, Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde. Nowadays, Carey very much enjoys performing and writing comic sketches on stage and in private soirees and writes short stories and plays for children. She is also often involved in staged play readings for “Moving Parts” and “Theatre Metropole”.She is an English Coach in presenting/debating skills for Management in International companies, a voice-over artist and a trained Shiatsu Practitioner
Henri RizkHenri Rizk was trained at the Theatre le Hangar in Toulouse and at a multidisciplinary Drama School in Paris where he had Valérie Antonijevich (creator of the Collectif Maquis’Arts) as a Drama teacher. He still works with her today as an Actor (in addition to English he also speaks French and Italian° and a Director Assistant on several Contemporary writings.Henri loves comedy and, in fact, his first acting experience was in Commedia dell’Arte play, he has also worked in vaudevilles of Labiche, in The Dragon (Evguéni Schwartz) and in some sketches for the screen. He also performs regularly in Theatrical tours in touristic areas of Paris.As well as comedic roles, he also likes performing more dramatic parts, as he did in many short films such as : a maffioso in Family Day (Jean-Charles Charavin), a lonely man in Apparition (Denis Dobrovda) or the desperating Mr Patissot is Sundays of a Parisian Bourgeois (Thomas Grascoeur) based on a novel of Maupassant.His last workshop brought him to London to work on the “Voice and Shakespearean text” with Nadine George (creator of the Voice Studio International)

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Monday Feb 1st: our theme is “Tall Tales – Excuses” and our guest David Jaggard!

DJaggardPlazaRed - copieDavid Jaggard is an American-born-Paris-based composer, humorist and translator. Guess which of those three activities pays the bills. Between paying bills and yelling at Republicans on TV as though they can hear him, he writes a biweekly humor column called “C’est Ironique” (in English) on paris-update.com. His satire pieces have appeared in Sabor Magazine, on the websites The Big Jewel, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and Yankee Pot Roast, and, in the sincerest form of flattery, been copied without credit or authorization on other sites too numerous and scumbaggy to mention. James Joyce is quoted in one source as saying, “Reading David Jaggard changed my life. Not much, and for the worse, but changed.” On a totally unrelated note, an album of David’s comic and spoken word compositions will be released on iTunes, Spotify, etc., in mid-February 2016 under the title “Totally Unrelated.”

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banter banter

Coming soon… out of the Paris writers’ community… Watch the trailer
banter banter

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